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THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 

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FYSt 

"7 


History  of 


Corporal 
Fess   Wnitaker 


COPYRIGHT  1918 
FESS  WHITAKER 


The  Standard  Printing  Co. 

incorporated 

Louisville,  Kentucky 


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1- 

CORPORAL  FESS  WHITAKER 
February  12,  1898,  to  August  22,  1904 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


AMONG  the  people  of  Letcher  County  no  other 
man  has  so  remarkable  history  as  Fess  Whit- 
aker;  none  other  is  so  well  worthy  of  being 
carefully  studied  by  all  who  find  pleasure  in  the  past 
history  and  particularly  by  Letcher's  own  people.  In 
the  winning  of  friends  he  stands  first;  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  the  county  his  influence  has  been  strongly  ex- 
erted; as  a  soldier  on  the  battlefield  he  stands  firm. 
While  the  moonshiners  and  ku-klux  were  provoking 
the  country  in  my  early  boyhood  as  though  led  by  an 
inscrutable  hand  were  finding  their  way  over  the 
mountains  and  preparing  to  establish  themselves  as 
the  outguard  of  civilization  that  they  might  become 
the  possessors  of  all  the  sons  of  Letcher  County,  the 
good  mountain  mothers,  almost  unaided,  not  only 
stood  like  a  wall  of  fire  to  forbid  such  conduct  of  the 
men,  but  made  good  their  footing,  which  soon  after- 
ward made  their  loving  Christian  homes  a  pleasure. 

The  strong  characteristics  of  the  men  and  women 
who,  with  unexampled  courage,  endurance  and  patri- 
otic devotion  achieved  so  much  with  so  little  means 
and  in  the  face  of  obstacles  so  great,  could  but  impress 
themselves  upon  the  people  of  Letcher  County.   From 


6  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

the  first  mothers  they  have  escaped  that  sign  of 
Athenian  decadence,  the  restless  desire  to  be  ever 
hearing  and  telling  some  new  thing  to  show  what 
good  people  Letcher  County  has. 

This  book  claims  to  be  but  an  epitome  of  the  His- 
tory of  Fess  Whitaker;  but  it  will  be  found  to  contain 
a  general  account,  to  which  interest  he  has  taken  by 
an  uneducated  man,  special  and  particular  incidents, 
etc.  The  adult  or  educated  mind  will  read  far  more 
between  the  lines  than  is  found  in  the  book.  The 
author  trusts  that  he  has  imparted  to  the  short  stories 
something  of  that  spirit  which  should  be  impressed 
upon  the  people  whose  minds  and  character  are  still 
in  the  formative  state — an  admiration  of  their  own 
country  and  a  pride  in  its  past,  the  surest  guarantees 
that  in  the  future  her  fair  fame  will  be  enhanced,  her 
honor  maintained  and  her  progress  in  all  right  lines 
be  steadily  and  nobly  promoted. 


HISTORY  OF  CORPORAL 
FESS  WHITAKER 


FESS  WHITAKER  was  born  June  17,  1880,  in 
Knott  County,  Kentucky.  Knott  County  is  lo- 
cated in  the  mountains  of  Kentucky  between 
the  Big  Sandy  River  and  the  north  fork  of  the  Ken- 
tucky River.  There  are  no  railroads  in  Knott  County, 
but  there  is  lots  of  fine  coal  (what  is  known  as  the 
Amburgey  seam),  and  lots  of  fine  timber.  Hindman 
is  the  county  seat.  Knott  County  has  fine  churches 
and  schools  and  good  roads,  and,  no  doubt,  the  best 
farming  county  in  the  mountains. 

When  I  was  only  six  years  old  my  father  swapped 
farms  with  Tood  Stamper  and  put  the  Whit- 
akers  together  in  Letcher  County  and  the  Stampers 
together  in  Knott  County.  My  mother  was  old  Kelly 
Hogg's  daughter,  and  in  time  of  slavery  my  Grand- 
father Hogg  swapped  a  foolish  negro  to  Mr.  Mullins, 
of  Knott  County,  for  a  good  farm  worth  $10,000  to- 
day, known  as  the  Black  Sam  Francis  farm  now.  Mr. 
Mullins  thought  lots  of  his  little  negro  and  called  him 
his  Shade,  meaning  that  he  could  rest  and  the  negro 
could  work.  But  when  the  greatest  man  that  ever  has 
been  elected  President  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, Abraham  Lincoln,  said  slavery  was  not  right  and 


8  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

released  the  shackles  from  four  million  slaves,  Mr. 
Mullins  lost  his  farm  and  his  little  negro  "Sam  Hogg 
Mullins,"  too. 

When  I  was  six  years  old  my  parents  went  back  to 
Rockhouse,  a  tributary  to  the  north  fork  of  the  Ken- 


REV.  JIM  T.  WHITAKER 
Pastor  Indian  Bottom  Church 


tucky  River,  now  one  mile  from  the  little  town  of 
Elackey,  or  the  old  Indian  Bottom  Church.  The 
same  year  that  my  parents  moved  to  Rockhouse  my 
father,  who  was  the  late  I.  D.  Whitaker,  Jr.,  died.  He 
was  the  son  of  S.  A.  Whitaker,  known  so  well  in  Ken- 
tucky and  Missouri.     After  the  death  of  my  father 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


my  mother  was  left  with  eight  poor  little  orphan 
children  to  raise,  six  boys  and  two  girls.  The  boys' 
names  are  very  funny;  they  are,  according  to  name 
and  age :  Fred  and  Fess,  Little  and  Less,  Gid  and  Jim, 
and  all  the  rest.  And  all  the  rest  were  the  two  girls, 
Julia  and  Susan. 

My  mother  was  left  with  a  very  good  farm  of  about 
125  acres,  and  the  Rockhouse  Creek  ran  right  through 
the  center  of  it.  During  those  days  every  spring  we 
had  what  was  known  as  big  tides.  The  late  Bill  Wright 
was  the  greatest  logger  and  splash-dam  man  in  the 
mountains  of  Kentucky.  The  next  year  after  my 
father  died  Mr.  Wright  had  five  big  splash-dams  in 
the  head  of  Rockhouse  and  Mill  Creek  and  had 
between  ten  thousand  and 'fifteen  thousand  big  poplar 
saw  logs  in  the  dams,  and  when  he  turned  those  five 
dams  loose  there  was  no  land  or  fence  left  below.  So 
that  same  spring  he  cleaned  our  farm  on  both  sides  of 
Rockhouse  and  in  about  ten  days  here  he  came  with 
twenty-eight  big,  strong  mountain  men,  bedding  all 
the  logs  that  lodged.  I  will  never  forget  what  hap- 
pened. They  were  all  eatin'  dinner  at  mother's,  and 
one  man,  by  the  name  of  Sol  Potter,  was  eatin'  big 
onion  blades  and  he  got  choked  and  got  his  breath  all 
that  evenin'  through  the  onion  blade,  but  by  good 
luck  Mr.  Potter  is  a  real  rich  man  in  coal  land  below 
Hemphill  leased  to  Parson  Brothers  and  Big  Jim 
Montgomery,  and  in  that  bunch  of  log-bedders  was 
Henry  Potter,  of  Kona,  another  rich  man  of  the 
mountains,  and  a  brother  to  Sol  Potter  and  also  a 
brother-in-law  of  ex-Jailer  Hall.  Mr.  Wright,  the 
owner  of  the  logs  and  dams,  was  murdered  by  Noah 
Reynolds  just  above  his  home,  now  Seco.     Reynolds 


10  History   of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  life  and  served 
seven  years  and  was  paroled  by  Governor  Beckham. 
Reynolds  is  now  a  Baptist  preacher  and  lives 
in  Knott  County.  The  Southeast  Coal  Company 
is  now  operating  on  Mr.  Wright's  land  at  Seco,  Ky. 

After  the  big  tide  and  all  the  rails  gone  and  big  saw- 
logs  laying  out  in  the  bottoms  in  the  corn  in  April, 
we  had  no  money,  so  us  boys  finished  making  the  crop 
and  minded  the  stock  out  of  our  corn  with  the  dogs 
until  fall.  There  was  no  such  a  thing  those  days  as 
wire  fences,  and  in  the  fall  we  went  to  the  mountains 
and  cut  and  hauled  in  rail  timber  and  made  rails  back 
out  of  big  white  oak  trees  or  black  oaks  worth  $25 
per  tree  now.  We  would  cut  and  saw  the  cuts  to 
make  the  rails  out  of  about  eight  feet,  would  split  and 
burst  them  open  with  two  good  wood  gluts  and  iron 
wedges  and  a  good  old  seasoned  hickory  mall,  weigh- 
ing about  thirty  pounds.  After  we  got  our  corn  and 
fodder  laid  up  for  winter  the  people  would  go  many 
miles  to  an  old  horse  mill  to  get  cornmeal  ground. 
Everyone  would  take  their  turn  grinding.  They 
would  put  their  horse  into  the  mill,  put  their  corn  in 
the  hopper  and  then  get  a  switch  and  start  the  old 
horse  around.  And  in  about  one  hour  he  would  have 
about  one  bushel  of  good  meal.  There  were  only 
three  mills  within  fifty  miles  square.  Old  Levi 
Eldridge  had  one  on  Rockhouse,  and  old  Pud  Breed- 
ing had  one  on  Breeding's  Creek,  and  old  Fighting 
George  Ison  one  on  Line  Fork. 

When  I  was  eight  years  old  my  mother  started  me 
to  an  old  water  mill  with  two  bushels  of  corn  to  get 
meal  and  put  me  on  an  old  mule  named  "John,"  put 
a  spur  on  my  right  heel  to  make  the  old  mule  go  if 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  n 

he  took  the  studs.  So  I  was  just  going  across  Burton 
Hill  and,  like  a  boy,  I  wanted  my  mule  to  trot,  so  T 
applied  my  spur  and  he  started  and  I  began  to  bounce 
around  on  the  saddle,  and  the  tighter  I  clinched  my 
legs  the  faster  the  old  mule  got,  so  he  ran  through  a 
big  ivy  and  laurel  patch  and  threw  me  off.  By  luck  I 
only  got  skinned  up  a  little  bit,  so  I  finally  caught  old 
"John"  and  took  off  my  spur  and  got  back  on  the  old 
mule.  It  was  a  very  cool,  frosty  morning,  so  I  went 
up  about  two  miles  to  where  the  late  'Esquire  Whit- 
aker  lived  and  I  got  down  to  warm.  I  hitched  my  old 
mule  to  the  gate  and  fixed  my  corn  on  better  and  went 
into  the  house.  After  I  got  warm  I  went  back  out 
and  got  on  my  old  mule  and  went  on  to  the  mill  at 
Ben  Back's.  I  got  down  to  take  my  corn  off  and 
there  was  no  corn,  so  I  took  back  down  the  road 
huntin'  for  my  sack  of  corn.  I  went  back  to  where  I 
warmed  and  there  I  found  my  sack  torn  all  to  pieces. 
While  I  was  warming  the  old  cows  pulled  it  off  of  my 
saddle  and  the  hogs  drug  it  over  a  cliff  of  rocks  and 
eat  it  all  up.  So  I  went  home  and  mother  sure  did  fix 
my  back,  and  then  we  shelled  another  sack  of  corn 
and  mother  took  it,  because  it  was  noon  and  no  bread 
and  a  houseful  of  children  and  no  bread  to  eat. 

I  never  spoke  a  word  until  I  was  nine  years  old.  I 
only  clucked  and  motioned  for  what  I  wanted.  Lots 
of  people  thought  I  was  an  idiot  because  I  could  not 
talk.  I  may  have  looked  like  one,  for  I  was  a  little  old 
country  boy  that  never  cut  my  hair  in  those  days  only 
about  twice  a  year,  and  I  wore  a  big  checked  cotton 
shirt  and  old  jeans  pants  made  by  my  mother  and  old 
yarn  socks,  and  70-cent  stogie  shoes  with  brass  toes. 
This  was  my  winter,  suit  and  my  summer  suit  was 
only  a  big  yellow  factory  shirt  and  no  hat  or  shoes. 


12  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

At  the  age  of  ten  I  was  taken  by  my  mother  and 
uncle,  Gid  Hogg,  to  Whitesburg,  Ky.,  the  county  seat 
of  Letcher  County,  a  distance  of  about  eighteen  miles. 
We  rode  an  old  mare  named  "Kate,"  without  any 
saddle,  and  when  I  was  taken  off  I  could  not  walk  I 
was  so  stiff,  and  that  made  everybody  think  I  was  an 
idiot  sure  enough.  So  when  Judge  H.  C.  Lilley 
opened   court  on   Monday,    February    12,  they  taken 


THE  AUTHOR,  AGE  10 

me  before  the  judge.  The  judge  ordered  old  Black. 
Shade  Combs,  then  the  sheriff,  to  summons  twelve 
jurors  and  two  doctors.  One  doctor  thought  I  had 
been  born  an  idiot,  and  Dr.  S.  S.  Swaingo,  of  Jackson, 
held  out  that  I  was  all  right  of  mind,  and  so  the  case 
was  put  off  until  10  a.  m.  Tuesday.  Then  Dr.  Swaingo 
got  old  Dr.  McCray  and  gave  me  a  thorough  exam- 
ination.    The  doctors  found  by  examining  my  neck, 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  13 


where  the  small  tits  in  one's  neck  are,  that  the  tit 
in  my  neck  had  grown  together.  After  the  doctors 
cut  the  tit  loose  in  my  neck  I  began  to  talk  and  to 
have  a  good  joke.  The  doctors  took  me  to  a  one-horse 
barber  shop  and  had  my  hair  cut  and  fixed  me  up  and 
presented  me  on  Tuesday  morning  to  Judge  Lilley, 
and  he  was  surprised  beyond  reason  that  I  was  Fess. 
So  that  was  Fess's  first  miracle.  Later  on  they  have 
all  been  worked  out  to  the  present. 

When  my  mother  took  me  back  home  everybody 
was  surprised  and  people  came  miles  and  miles  to  see 
the  boy  that  was  so  much  talked  about  and  to  see  the 
boy  that  had  been  made  to  speak  after  ten  years  of 
worthless  tongue. 

I  was  put  in  school  at  the  age  of  ten  years  and  was 
known  as  the  funny  schoolboy.  The  children  would, 
all  laugh  at  me  because  I  could  not  talk  plain,  but  it 
did  not  take  me  very  long  to  learn  how  to  stand  ahead 
in  my  classes.  I  was  very  fast  to  learn  in  all  the  books 
they  had  those  days  except  arithmetic.  The  first 
school  I  ever  went  to  was.  in  an  old  log  house  dobbed 
with  mud,  with  an  old-fashioned  chimney  made  out 
of  mud  and  sticks  of  wood.  The  late  W.  T.  Haney, 
who  was  murdered  on  the  head  of  Little  Carr,  of 
Knott  County,  for  $30.00,  was  the  teacher.  He  was 
known  one  day  as  being  the  best-read  man  and  no 
doubt  the  best  educated  man  in  Eastern  Kentucky 
those  days.  He  was  the  father  of  John  Haney,  of 
Chicago,  the  expert  railroad  man,  and  the  stepfather 
of  George  M.  Hogg,  one  of  the  leading  men  in  East- 
ern Kentucky.  Mr.  Haney,  after  hearing  all  of  the 
children's  lessons  in  the  afternoon,  would  lay  down 
in  an  old  country  wash  trough  for  a  nap  of  sleep.    The 


14  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

trough  was  made  out  of  a  fine  large  yellow  poplar, 
eight  feet  long,  and  hauled  out  of  the  mountains  with 
a  yoke  of  steers.  The  log  was  hewed  square  on  one 
side  with  a  sixteen-inch  broadax,  then  eight  inches 
left  at  each  end  and  the  remainder  was  hulled  out  to 
a  big  troughj  then  two  holes  were  bored  in  the  bottom 
of  each  end  of  the  trough  and  four  wooden  legs,  made 
by  hand,  were  driven  into  the  trough  and  set  up.  In 
the  inside  of  the  trough  at  one  end  at  the  bottom  was 
a  hole  bored  and  a  pin  made  to  fit  so  that  it  could  let 
the  water  out.  The  water  was  "hit"  and  put  in  the 
tub  and  when  the  "wimen"  began  to  wash  they  would 
have  what  was  known  as  battling  sticks  and  they 
would  apply  the  water  and  soap  on  the  clothes  and  lay 
them  on  the  eight-inch  end  of  the  trough  and  begin 
to  battle.  The  old  troughs  have  about  all  played  out 
of  fashion,  as  the  galvanized  tubs  were  brought  in  and 
have  taken  the  day;  still  there  is  many  a  one  used  up 
to  the  present  day.  The  soap  they  used  those  days 
was  the  best  of  soap.  The  men  folks  would  cut  and 
haul  in  out  of  the  mountains  so  many  white  oak  and 
hickory  trees.  They  would  cut  and  saw  them  up  and 
pile  them  up  in  a  big  pile  and  burn  them  to  get  the 
ashes.  After  the  ashes  were  cooled  off  they  took  them 
and  poured  them  into  a  gum  called  those  days  that 
was  sitting  on  some  boards  that  the  gum  was  made  to 
lean  on.  After  staying  nine  days,  on  the  old  moon,  wat- 
er was  poured  in  the  gum  on  the  ashes  and  the  red  lye 
began  to  drop  and  run  out  of  the  bottom  into  another 
trough,  made  like  the  washin'  trough  but  smaller. 
After  the  lye  leaked  out  good  and  got  all  the  strength 
out  of  the  ashes,  the  lye  was  put  in  an  old  country 
fashion  pot  and  the  hogs'  guts  that  had  been  washed 
and  dried  and  strung  on  a  pole  in  the  corner  of  the  old 


Kentucky  Mountain  Lijc  15 

chimney  was  taken  down  and  put  in  the  pot  with  the 
lye.  The  lye  was  so  strong  it  soon  ate  up  the  hogs' 
guts  and  boiled  to  a  jelly-like  substance  and  taken  off 
and  put  in  old  big  round  gourd  raised  on  the  farm. 
The  gum  that  held  the  ashes  was  a  hollow  tree  cut 
down  and  burnt  out  inside  and  sawed  into  about  four- 
foot  lengths  for  gums. 

The  second  school  that  I  went  to  was  taught  by 
little  Sammie  Banks,  of  Big  Cowen.  Sammie  boarded 
with  my  mother,  and  after  the  five  months'  term  of 
school  was  out  Preacher  Jim  Caudill  made  up  a  sub- 
scription school  at  the  mouth  of  Rockhouse  at  $1.00 
each  and  mother  signed  for  five,  and  she  had  no 
money,  but  had  a  good  nerve.  The  first  week  I  went 
mother  took  me  up  in  her  lap  and  tried  me  in  arith- 
metic where  the  teacher  had  me,  and  I  knew  nothing 
about  it.  The  teacher  was  pushing  me  too  fast. 
Mother  told  me  that  she  would  try  me  one  more  week 
and  if  I  could  not  do  anything  in  the  arithmetic  by 
the  next  Friday  that  she  would  give  me  a  good  whip- 
ping. So  the  next  Friday  came  and  I  had  not  learned 
anything,  so  I  played  off  sick  about  11  o'clock  that 
morning  at  school  and  went  out  of  the  schoolhouse 
and  began  to  play  off  crazy,  and  my  sister  Julia,  now 
Mrs.  J.  D.  Stamper,  of  Big  Springs,  Tex.,  ran  after 
mother.     There  being  no  medical  doctor  within  forty 

miles,  they  brought  a  charm  doctor,  Andy  C . 

who  rubbed  me  and  charged  mother  five  dollars  for  it 
and  claimed  I  had  been  poisoned  very  bad,  so  by  Mon- 
day I  was  ready  for  school.  And  mother  told  me  what 
would  happen  Friday  if  I  could  not  do  anything  with 
my  arithmetic.  So  I  tried,  and  Friday  evening  mother 
tried  me  and  I  was  in  long  division,  but  I  could  not 
do  anything.     She  got  me  up  in  her  lap  and  tried  her 


16  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


best  to  show  me,  but  all  in  vain.  So  she  put  me  down 
and  laid  the  book  upon  the  table  and  took  me  by  the 
hand  and  led  me  to  a  large  cedar  tree  and  broke  her 
a  good  switch  and  began  whipping  me.  She  whipped 
me  until  she  gave  out,  and  sat  down  on  a  large  rock- 
pile  to  rest  and  stood  me  up  and  talked  to  me  while 


EDDIE  BROWN 
The  good-natured  schoolmaster 


she  was  resting.  After  she  got  through  resting  she 
raised  and  gave  me  the  same  dose  again;  then  she 
took  me  back  in  the  house  and  got  me  up  in  her  lap 
and  began  to  show  me  about  my  lesson,  and  it  jumped 
in  my  head  like  a  falling  star,  and  from  that  time  until 
the  present  date  I  challenge  the  State  of  Kentucky 
in  the  arithmetic.    That  was  my  second  miracle. 

The  third  school  I  went  to  was  taught  by  Eddie 
Brown,  on  Burton  Hill,  in  a  new  log  house,  with  no 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  17 

chimney  and  no  floor  in  the  house  and  a  big  fire  in  the 
middle  of  the  house.  I  always  had  the  rest  of  the  chil- 
dren beat  by  this  time.  I  was  twelve  years  old  and 
past  and  had  begun  to  get  to  be  a  pretty  mean  boy  on 
account '  of  so  many  people  picking  at  me.  Eddie 
Brown,  the  teacher,  told  us  children  if  we  were  not 
good  children  that  the  "Old  Bugger  Man"  would 
come  and  get  us.  So  the  "Bugger  Man"  sure  did 
come  the  next  school.  I  was  thirteen  years  old  then, 
and  Wesley  Banks  had  been  employed  to  teach  the 
school,  and  by  this  time  the  school  had  the  name  of 
having  the  meanest  lot  of  boys  in  it  of  any  other  school 
in  Letcher  County.  I  was  called  the  leader.  There  were 
four  of  us  called  bad — Mason  Whitaker,  Ben  McTn- 
tar,  Print  Ison  and  myself.  Mr.  Banks  took  charge 
of  the  school  on  July  5,  and  all  the  children's  parents 
came  in  to  see  the  new  teacher.  So  the  teacher  got 
up  to  talk  and  open  his  school.  He  was  a  very  homely 
mountain  man,  and  the  first  thing  he  said  was :  "This 
school  has  an  awfully  bad  name  and  I  understand  that 
Mr.  Eddie  Brown  teached  this  school  last  year  and 
told  you  all  that  the  "Bugger  Man"  would  come  if  you 
were  not  good  school  children.  Now,  I  am  the  'Bug-- 
ger  Man.'  " 

When  he  said  that  every  child  threw  its  eyes  on  him. 

"Next  one  I  call  their  name  please  come  around  to 
where  I  now  stand,"  said  the  teacher. 

The  first  name  called  was  Eess,  then  Print,  Mase 
and  Ben.  So  we  all  went  around  to  where  the  teacher 
was  and  he  said:  "Boys,  I  have  bin  told  that  you  four 
boys  have  bin  very  bad  boys  in  school,  so  I  am  going 
to  turn  a  new  leaf." 


18 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


My  heart  was  in  my  neck,  for  I  knew  that  Mr. 
Banks  had  already  brought  in  twelve  long  green  oak 
switches  before  opening  school. 

"Fess,"  said  he,  "it's  reported  to  me  that  you  are 
the  meanest,"  and  he  took  me  by  the  hand  and  sure 
did  like  to  beat  me  to  death,  and  when  he  got  through 


:ifsM'-iy:-'. 


I 


UNCLE  WESLEY  BANKS 
The  "Buggar  Man"  school  master 

with  me  he  told  me  to  take  my  seat.  Then  he  took 
Print  next  and  gave  him  the  same,  then  Mase,  and 
while  he  was  whipping  Mase  a  large  splinter  flew  off 
the  switch  and  across  a  twenty-foot  house  and  stuck 
in  under  the  shoulder  blade  of  the  back  of  Less,  a 
brother  of  Fess.  Then  he  had  to  take  a  pair  of  old 
home-made  tooth  pullers    that    had  been    made  in  a 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


19 


blacksmith  shop  by  big  Jim  Back,  of  CaudilFs  Branch, 
and  pull  out  the  splinter.  After  all  that  he  gave  Ben 
the  same  dose  as  he  did  us.  He  then  said  that  the 
school  had  opened,  and  gave  us  our  lessons.  He  only 
had  to  apply  his  new  rule  once.  After  the  free  school 
was  out  the  same  old  Baptist  preacher,  Jim  Caudill, 
got  up  a  subscription  school  again  that  winter.     My 


CRISS  BROWN 
The  wooden  pistol  hero 

mother  had  rented  part  of  her  farm  to  Joe  Brown,  of 
Cumberland  River,  and  he  had  eight  boys,  and  one,  by 
the  name  of  Criss,  was  very  bad.  Along  during  the 
second  week  Criss  done  something  and  the  teacher 
went  to  whip  him  and  he  bucked  on  the  teacher,  so  the 
good  old  teacher,  about  sixty  years  old,  put  the  whip- 
ping off  until  he  could  see  the  father  of  Criss.    So  that 


20 


History   of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


night  Criss  made  him  a  wooden  pistol  and  wired  a  big- 
forty-four  cartridge  hull  on  the  end  of  it  and  made 
a  fuse  hole  in  the  end  of  it  and  filled  it  with  black 
powder  and  drove  a  stick  in  on  the  powder  and  took 
it  with  him  to  school.  The  teacher  had  seen  the  boy's 
father  and  told  him  about  the  trouble  and  the  father 
said  to  be  sure  and  whip  him,  so  he  called  for  Criss  to 
come  around  and  get  his  whipping,  and  instead  of 
going  up  he  ran  out  of  the  house  and  the  teacher  fol- 
lowed him,  but  all  in  vain.  So  the  teacher  came  back 
into  the  schoolhouse  and  sat  down  in  the  chair  and 
started  giving  out  a  spelling  lesson.  The  schoolhouse 
was  on  old-fashioned  log  house  dobbed  with  mud,  and 
some  of  the  mud  had  fallen  out  of  the  cracks  of  the 
schoolhouse.  With  his  big  forty-four  cartridge  hull 
loaded  he  sighted  it  right  at  the  teacher's  old  bald 
head  and  struck  a  match  and  touched  it  to  the  fuse 
hole  and  the  old  wooden  gun  went  off  and  the  wooden 
bullet  struck  the  old  man  right  in  the  head.  He 
jumped  up  and  dismissed  the  school,  very  badly  scared 
and  bleeding,  and  never  did  teach  another  school.  So 
the  next  year  they  got  the  "Bugger  Man"  teacher 
again  and  everybody  came  out  to  see  him  open  his 
school  the  same  as  they  did  before. 

Wesley  Banks,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  did  not  know  a 
letter  in  the  book  and  began  going  to  school,  and  at 
the  age  of  thirty-three  received  a  third  class  certifi- 
cate and  began  teaching  and  now  has  taught  forty- 
six  schools  in  Letcher  County  thirty-seven  years  in 
succession  without  missing,  and  very  near  whipped 
every  boy  in  Letcher  County.  He  was  at  one  time 
called  the  best  teacher  in  Letcher  Countv. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  21 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  I  became  head  of  the  family, 
as  my  older  brother,  Fred,  became  grown  at  the  age 
of  sixteen  and,  there  being  no  father  to  make  him 
mind,  he  ran  around  the  country  one  year,  doing  no 
good.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  R.  B.  Bentley,  with  both 
legs  off,  then  County  Court  Clerk  of  Letcher 
County,  took  him  into  his  home  and  finished  his  edu- 
cation for  him.  He  is  now  a  well-to-do-farmer  and 
stockman  of  Richmond,  Ky. 

After  I  became  head  of  the  family  mother  went  off 
one  Sunday  and  myself  and  the  four  younger  boys 
run  a  year-old  colt  in  the  stable  and  we  had  just  killed 
some  hogs,  so  we  got  the  hogs'  bladders  off  of  the 
hogs'  guts  and  blew  them  up  and  filled  them  up  with 
white  beans  and  they  sure  would  rattle.  So  I  tied  three 
bladders  to  the  colt's  tail  and  opened  the  door  and 
turned  the  colt  out.  There  was  a  large  apple  orchard 
all  around  the  barn,  it  being  about  four  acres  square. 
So  the  colt  started,  its  tail  in  the  air,  then  under  its 
belly,  then  between  its-  legs,  scared  to  death,  and  just 
simply  burning  the  wind.  "  'Pon  my  honor,"  when  it 
got  to  the  other  end  of  the  orchard  it  turned  to  come 
back  and  its  tail  hit  an  apple  tree,  causing  one  of  the 
bladders  to  burst.  Talk  about  jumping!  The  colt  went 
up  in  the  air  about  ten  feet,  and  when  it  hit  the  ground 
it  made  an  awful  funny  noise  and  started  for  the  barn. 
Us  boys  got  out  of  the  way  and  when  it  got  within 
ten  feet  of  the  barn  it  made  a  long  jump  for  the  door, 
and  just  as  it  went  to  go  through  the  door  it  struck 
its  hip  against  the  side  of  the  door  and  knocked  one 
of  its  hips  out  of  place. 


22  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Just  as  soon  as  mother  came  home  the  other  boys 
told  on  me,  so  I  sure  did  get  some  more  of  that  oak 
tea  just  like  Wesley  Banks  gave  me,  and  my  mother 
sure  was  mad. 

My  mother  was  a  Hogg  before  her  marriage,  and 
sure  could  whip  and  whip  with  a  good  constitution. 
I  am  now  fifteen  years  old  and  in  school  and  the  best 
attendant  in  Letcher  County.  There  were  about 
twenty  young  men  and  thirty  young  girls  in  my  class. 
The  school  was  mostly  composed  of  Bankes,  Isons, 
Fraziers,  Caudills,  Backs,  Hoggs  and  Whitakers. 
Burton  Hill  is  located  about  two  and  one-half  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  Rockhouse.  It  is  a  beautiful  place 
and  about  twenty  acres  square  and  all  level,  covered 
with  large  black  pines,  cedars,  ivy  and  laurel  and  lots 
of  mountain  tea  grows  there.  It  lies  in  the  bend  of 
Rockhouse  Creek,  and  the  creek  runs  very  near  all 
around  it.  It  is  now  owned  by  Less,  brother  of  Fess, 
of  Amarillo,  Tex.  That  is  where  the  late  Wesley  Col- 
lins and  Daw  Adams  built  the  first  church  in  the 
lower  end  of  the  county.  And  the  first  preacher  I  ever 
saw  was  then. 

Mother  had  washed  us  all  up  and  put  a  clean  shirt 
on  us  boys  and  taken  us  up  to  church.  Mr.  Collins 
opened  up  the  church  like  the  old  Regular  Baptists  do 
nowadays.  After  church  was  opened  Mr.  Adams  was 
the  first  preacher.  He  was  then  about  forty  years  old 
and  had  been  married  seven  times  and  stood  about  six 
feet  and  four  inches  on  the  ground,  and  holds  the 
world's  champion  horse-swapping  medal.  He  had 
two  big  long  cowboy  spurs,  one  on  each  foot,  and  his 
boots  had  the  pictures  of  the  moon  and  stars  on  top 
of  them.     So  Mr.  Adams  opened  the  song  book  and 


'entucky  Mountain  Life 


23 


24  History  of  Corporil  Fess  Whitaker 

gave  out  an  old-fashioned  song  and  asked  everybody 
,  to  help  sing,  and  after  the  song  he  took  his  text.  Don't 
remember  just  what  it  was,  but  according  to  his  faith 
Adams  was  carried  off  in  a  trance  and  he  was  squat- 
ting and  yelling  and  said*  "Brothers  and  sistern,  if  this 
doctrine  is  from  the  Lord  it's  all  right,  and  if  it's  from 


DAW  ADAMS 
Mountain  Champion  Horse  Swapper 

Daw  A.  it's  no  good,"  and  about  that  time  he  drove 
those  two  big  cowboy  spurs  into  his  thighs  and  he 
gave  a  great  yell  and  everybody  had  to  laugh.  So  Mr. 
Adams  never  got  up  to  preach  any  more  from  that 
day  until  this,  but  he  is  a  good  old  Baptist  Christian 
and  professed  a  hope  a  few  years  ago  and  was  bap- 
tized at  Mayking,  Ky.,  where  he  was  born  and  reared 
up.     Mr.  Adams  belongs  to  one  of  the  largest  genera- 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  25 

tions  in  the  country  and  is  well  liked  and  thought  of 
by  everybody.  His  great-grandfather  came  over  here 
the  same  time  that  Daniel  Boone  did,  and  Boone 
settled  at  Kona  and  Adams  at  Mayking.  Those  days 
times  were  rough  in  Letcher '%  County ;  a  moonshine 
still  was  in  very  near  every  hollow  and  a  blind  tiger 
everywhere.  And  Adams  was  a  big-hearted  fellow 
and  fell  .on  the  church  that  day  to  get  to  skin  some 
good  old  man  out  of  his  horse  or  mule. 

Mr.  Collins,  the  other  preacher,  died  some  years 
ago  in  the  asylum  at  Lexington.  He  died  in  good 
faith  and  died  a  regular  Baptist,  and  belonged  to  a 
large  generation  of  people  and  good  parents.  One  of 
his  sisters  sailed  from  New  York  on  February  23. 
1918,  as  head  of  the  Salvation  Army  in  France.  You 
will  always  find  the  Collins'  trying  to  live  in  the  faith 
and  always  doing  something  good  for  their  neighbors. 
Those  were  the  first  preachers  I  had  ever  seen.  I  had 
never  been  taught  anything  about  churches  or  Sun- 
day-schools,  but  since  that  day  I  have  seen  all  kinds 
of  churches. 

Just  before  the  end  of  school  the  late  Elijah  Banks., 
who  lived  on  the  head  of  Montgomery  Creek  on  the 
north  fork  of  the  Kentucky  River  that  empties  into 
the  river  in  Perry  County,  in  the  great  coal  fields  of 
Eastern  Kentucky,  had  four  grown  boys  in  school,  so 
they  set  in  begging  my  mother  to  let  me  go  home  with 
them  on  Friday  evening,  and  at  last  my  mother  con- 
sented to  let  me  go.  So  after  school  was  out  Friday 
evening  we  all  started  for  Montgomery  Creek,  about 
eight  miles  through  the  mountains. 

We  went  down  to  the  mouth  of  Caudill  Branch  at 
the  three  big  cliffs  of  rock,  up  Caudill  Branch  to  the 


26  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

mouth  of  Whitaker  Branch,  and  up  Whitaker  Branch 
and  across  a  big  mountain  well  covered  with  white 
oak,  chestnut  oak,  red  oak  and  chestnuts  and  three 
big  coal  veins  under  same;  No.  3  veins  four  feet  thick, 
No.  4  veins  six  feet  thick,  and  No.  7  veins  seven  feet 
and  eight  inches  thick."  Over  in  head  of  right-hand 
fork  of  Elk  Greek  down  we  go,  and  down  that  fork 
to  the  mouth  at  Uncle  Dave  Back's  and  then  up  a 
steep  hill  to  the  top,  and  there  we  found  a  nice  level 
country,  2,097  feet  above  sea  level,  and  one  of  my 
father's  sisters  lived  there,  Aunt  Peggie  Dixon.  All 
of  them  came  out  to  see  me,  and  after  we  left  there  we 
went  around  through  the  flat  woods,  and  as  we  went 
through  the  flat  woods  the  Banks  boys  told  me  that 
Thomas  Gent,  a  big,  rough  nineteen-year-old  boy,  had 
knocked  out  Press  Hensley's  black  cow's  eye  and  they 
wanted  me  to  whip  him  and  they  would  give  me 
twenty-five  cents  for  it.'  I  told  them  I  would  do  it.  T 
had  the  twenty-five  cents  on  my  mind,  and  it  was  my 
first  piece  of  money  to  get,  should  I  win.  I  made  up 
my  mind  to  win.  So  now  we  were  around  in  the  flat 
woods  to  where  Press  Hensley  lived.  The  Banks  boys 
called  out  Hensley  and  asked  about  his  old  black  cow 
getting  her  eye  knocked  out.  He  went  on  and  told  all 
about  it,  and  it  sure  did  go  in  on  my  brain,  so  we  had 
to  go  down  a  little  steep  place  through  a  big  chestnut 
orchard  to  where  the  G.  boy  lived.  I  went  in  and 
asked  where  the  boys  were  and  the  old  folks  said  that 
they  were  around  in  the  Rich  Gap  field.  That  pleased 
the  Banks  boys,  so  just  as  we  got  in  sight  of  the  field 
I  met  Thomas,  a  very  big  man,  weighing  about  140  or 
150  pounds.  I  asked  him  about  knocking  the  cow's 
eye  out,  and,  like  a  mountain  man,  he  said  he  did.  Just 
as  he  said  it  I  struck  him  in  the  stomach  with  my  left 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  27 

hand  and  on  the  chin  with  my  right  hand  and  he 
struck  the  ground,  and  onto  him  I  went  and  into  his 
face.  I  skinned  it  in  a  thousand  places  and  I  got  up 
and  asked  for  my  price  of  twenty-five  cents,  which  was 
gladly  paid.  We  all  went  on  rejoicing  over  the  hill 
to  where  the  boys'  father  lived. 

I  never  had  a  better  time  in  my  life  than  I  did  on  that 
trip,  and  I  also  won  a  title  in  the  fighting  ring.  The 
boys'  father  had  thirty-six  big,  fat  bee  gums  and  he 
got  an  old  rag  and  tied  it  on  a  stick  and  set  it  on  fire 
that  made  a  smoke  and  then  took  it  and  robbed  a  bee 
gum  and  taken  out  a  dishpanfull  of  fine  linn  honey. 
Aunt  Bettie  Ann,  now  dead,  had  plenty  of  good  home- 
made sugar  all  molded  out  in  teacups  and  she  gave 
me  plenty  of  it.  The  boys'  father  told  me  all  kinds 
of  big  war  tales  and  country  tales.  He  sure  was  a 
great  hand  to  tell  tales,  and  good  company. 

We  all  went  wild-hog  hunting  on  Saturday  and 
caught  two  big  wild  hogs,  then  that  evening  us  boys 
all  went  down  Montgomery  Creek  about  three  miles 
to  Wash  Combs'  to  a  big  country  dance.  There  were 
about  twenty  girls  and  boys  and  a  good  banjo  and 
fiddle.  They  sure  could  dance  some  of  that  old  coun- 
try dancing.  Along  about  11  o'clock  they  all  got  to 
courtin'.  They  laid  across  the  beds  and  hugged  each 
other  those  days.  That  was  the  style.  After  all  the 
beds  were  full  and  no  more  room  on  the  beds  to  court 
they  would  sit  in  each  others'  laps  and  hug  each  other. 
I  went  to  sleep  and  they  put  me  on  a  pallet  on  the 
floor  in  the  corner  of  the  house.  At  4  o'clock  in  the 
morning  the  boys  woke  me  up  and  we  all  went  back 
up  to  the  boys'  father's. 


28 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


MATILDA  WHITAKER 
The  author's  mother.    Born  February  13,  1848.    Died  October  30,  1918 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  29 

So  Sunday  evening"  we  all  went  back  over  the 
mountain  to  our  school.  That  was  one  great  trip  that 
will  never  be  forgtten,  and  my  first  trip  away  from 
home.  I  learned  on  that  trip  to  have  a  nerve  and  to 
have  faith  in  myself. 

After  the  free  school  was  out  my  mother  took  me 
up  to  old  Shade  Combs',  sixteen  miles  up  on  Rock- 
house,  to  a  winter  school.  Shade  Combs  was  a  first 
cousin  to  my  mother,  and  he  remembered  the  time 
when  he  was  the  sheriff  and  they  had  brought  me  to 
Whitesburg  to  try  and  get  me  on  the  county,  and  we 
had  some  good  jokes  about  it.  Mother  stayed  all 
night  and  next  morning  she  put  me  in  school.  Pro- 
fessor C.  C.  Crawford  was  the  teacher,  and  I  made 
myself  at  home  and  liked  school  fine  and  done  well  in 
school. 

I  am  now  sixteen  years  old  and  out  of  school,  grub- 
bing and  fencing  and  clearing  land,  trying  to  keep  my 
brothers  in  school,  which  I  did  by  hard  work,  I  was 
known  those  days  as  the  father  of  my  brothers. 
During  that  year  my  sister,  Julia  Stamper,  now  of  Big 
Springs,  Tex.,  was  plowing  an  old  yoke  of  oxen 
named  Dick  and  Mon,  and  Little,  now  Dr.  Whitaker, 
of  Blackey,  Ky.,  was  driving  the  old  oxen,  and  I  hid 
behind  a  big  rockpile,  wrapped  up  in  a  big  white  sheet, 
and  when  they  came  around  the  rockpile  I  jumped  at 
the  old  oxen  and  it  simply  scared  them  to  death. 
Their  tails  went  in  the  air  and  they  went  across  that 
field  just  a-flying,  and  old  Dick  got  the  bottom  plow 
stuck  in  his  side  and  died  from  the  effects  of  it.  Julia 
and  Little  ran  to  the  house  and  told  mother  what  had 
happened,  not  realizing  it  was  me  that  had  scared  the 
poor  old  steers.     So  I  owned  it  up,  and  I  do  believe 


30  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

that  was  the  hardest  whipping  that  my  mother  ever 
gave  me.    It  was  funny,  but  I  guess  I  sure  did  need  it. 

The  same  year  during  mulberry  time  on  Saturday 
we  all  came  in  about  11  o'clock  in  the  morning  for 
dinner.  We  had  a  large  mulberry  tree  down  next  to 
the  gate  and  it  was  awfully  full  and  just  getting  ripe. 
So  we  all  made  a  dive  for  the  tree,  five  of  us  boys.  We 


Dr.  Gid  Whitaker  and  Rev.  Jim  Whitaker 
at  ages  7  and  9 


Twin  brothers,  Little  and  Less 
at  age  11 


all  got  right  in  the  top  of  it  and  began  to  eat.  After 
getting  what  we  wanted  I  began  to  shake  the  tree 
with  the  boys  and  they  all  got  scared  and  fell  out. 
Less  got  two  ribs  broken,  Little  threw  his  left  arm 
out  of  place,  Gid  broke  his  left  leg,  and  Jim  got  his 
tailbone  broke,  and  poor  old  Fess  fell  out  at  the  same 
time  and  got  my  left  thigh  broke.  That  was  an  awful 
sight  to  see  five  brothers  broke  up  like  we  were.  Those 
days    there  was    not  a  doctor  in  forty    miles  of    my 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  31 

mother's.  She  put  splits  on  our  limbs  and  put  them 
in  boxes  to  keep  them  straight.  The  boxes  were  made 
out  of  six-inch  lumber.  It  did  not  take  over  thirty- 
three  days  until  we  were  all  out  to  work  again.  We 
were  all  hurt  that  time,  so  mother  could  not  whip  or 
quarrel  at  me. 

In  the  same  year,  but  in  the  fall,  mother  went  to 
catch  "Old  John,"  the  old  mule  I  went  to  mill  on.  Just 
as  she  went  to  put  the  bridle  bits  in  the  old  mule's 
mouth  he  turned  the  other  end  and  mother  jumped 
back  to  keep  the  old  mule  from  kicking  her.  Just  as 
she  jumped  she  stepped  on  a  slantin'  rock  and  fell  and 
broke  her  right  leg  square  in  two.  We  had  our  mother 
carried  home  and  her  leg  dressed  like  she  did  us  boys, 
and  she  could  not  use  that  leg  for  seventy-four  days. 
The  old  main  stake  was  sick  this  time  and  we  got  in 
the  hole  very  bad  and  in  debt,  so  I  had  to  lay  up  my 
education  upon  the  mantle  (made  out  of  an  old  oak 
board),  and  on  November  1  I  took  me  a  piece  of  raw 
middling  meat,  a  piece  of  corn  bread  and  two  big 
onion  heads  and  pulled  out  to  look  for  me  a  job.  I 
pulled  for  Stonega,  as  that  was  the  nearest  railroad, 
and  no  job  there  for  a  boy  like  me,  so  I  went  on  down 
Callahan  Creek  to  Mudlick  and  tried,  and  there  I  got 
me  a  job — the  first  job — and  it  was  seventy-five  cents 
per  day,  and  board  fifty  cents  per  day.  This  job  was 
wheeling  dust  from  a  band  sawmill.  After  working 
one  day  and  a  half  I  white-eyed  on  account 
of  the  dust  and  they  could  not  pay  me  un- 
til payday,  so  I  took  script  for  my  pay.  I  then 
paid  my  board  and  bought  canned  beef  and 
crackers  with  the  rest.  That  night  I  caught  a  boxcar 
of  coke  and  the  train  left  Appalachia,  Va.,  at  8:40 
p.   m.   for   Corbin   Ky.,   and   I   began   then   my   first 


32  History  of  Corporal  Fcss  Whitaker 

hoboing.  I  was  on  my  first  train,  and  on  the  third 
day  I  was  set  off  at  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  so  I  began  hol- 
lering and  some  stranger  broke  the  seal,  as  I  heard 
them  call  it  then,  and  got  me  out  of  the  car  and  took 
me  to  a  machine  shop  and  told  me  to  wash  myself, 
and  I  did.  I  was  just  as  dirty  as  a  black  man  not  to 
be  black.  After  the  whistle  blew  for  dinner  I  walked 
up  to  the  upper  end  of  the  yard  watching  and  trying 
to  find  out  how  to  catch  a  train  that  would  take  me 
back  to  Stonega,  Va.,  for  I  was  sure  tired  of  hoboing. 
So  late  that  evening  I  met  a  colored  man  walking  up 
through  the  yard  and  I  asked  him  where  he  was  going 
and  he  told  me  he  was  going  to  try  and  catch  a 
through  drag  of  empty  coke  cars  for  Stonega,  and 
that  pleased  me  to  death,  and  I  asked  him  how  far  we 
were  from  Stonega  and  he  replied  about  350  miles. 
So  he  said  for  me  to  go  with  him,  and  I  did,  and  when 
we  got  to  the  upper  end  of  the  yard  we  met  another 
white  man  headed  for  Cumberland  Gap  on  our  road. 
vSo  when  night  came  we  all  went  up  a  little  ways  out 
of  the  yard  and  made  us  a  bed  down  by  a  pile  of  rail- 
road ties  and  made  a  fire  and  were  going  to  catch  the 
first  freight  that  went  up  the  hill  that  night.  So  my  two 
partners  asked  me  to  go  out  to  some  of  the  houses  and 
beg  us  something  to  eat.  I  went  and  knocked  on  the 
first  door  I  came  to  and  a  nicely  dressed  lady  came  to 
the  door  and  asked  me  what  I  wanted  and  I  told  her 
a  nice  story  that  I  had  learned  from  my  partners.  The 
good  lady  went  and  brought  me  a  little  wooden  tray 
full  and  some  nice  biscuits  baked  out  of  baking  pow 
der,  which  are  fine  while  they  are  hot,  and  after  they 
get  cold  they  are  not  like  sour  milk  bread,  they  are 
hard.  So  the  good  lady  said  to  me:  "Young  boy,  I 
am  not  giving  you  these  biscuits  for  your  sake.  I  am 
giving  them  to  you  for  Christ's  sake." 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  33 

I  thanked  her  and  looked  her  right  in  the  eye  and 
said,  "For  God's  sake  put  a  little  butter  on  those  bis- 
cuits for  me." 

The  good  lady  laughed  at  me  and  took  my  name, 
which  I  gave  her,  and  she  gave  me  some  very 
good  advice,  and  it  is  still  in  my  heart  today.  I  bade 
her  good-bye  and  went  back  to  my  partners.  They 
were  very  well  pleased,  and  after  we  had  supper  we 
talked  awhile  and  they  taught  me  how  to  hobo,  or 
catch  a  freight  train,  and  told  many  hobo  stories 
around  the  firelight. 

We  all  laid  down  about  9  o'clock  that  night  on  the 
ground  by  a  good  fire.  It  was  getting  cool,  that  being 
in  the  early  part  of  November.  When  I  woke  up  my 
two  partners  were  gone  and  I  ran  just  as  fast  as  I 
could  up  the  hill  after  a  passenger  train.  After  I 
came  to  myself  I  could  hardly  believe  I  had  done  what 
I  had,  so  I  went  back  down  the  track  to  where  our 
camp  fire  was  burning,  and  there  I  found  the  colored 
man's  old  cap  and  my  hat  gone,  so  of  course  I  put  the 
old  cap  on.  I  did  not  know  what  to  do,  so  I  decided 
to  make  a  start  back  towards  Knoxville.  I  was  then 
about  three  miles  out  of  the  city,  and  right  in  the 
upper  end  of  the  yard  I  met  two  men.  They  tried  to 
raise  a  talk  with  me  and  went  out  to  one  side  and 
talked  and  then  came  back  to  me  and  asked  me  some 
more  questions  and  finally  they  took  me  with  them 
and  stopped  behind  an  old  dark  house  about  two  hun- 
dred yards  from  where  they  met  me  and  began  to 
whisper,  and  I  believe  as  I  am  living  today  they  meant 
to  kill  me.  And  in  less  than  a  second  it  turned  as 
bright  as  the  brightest  day  you  ever  saw  all  around 
me  about  three  feet  square.    And  those  two  men  just 


34  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

simply  flew,  and  just  that  minute  it  turned  dark  again 
and  I  flew  the  other  way  and  in  about  two  hours  day- 
light broke  and  I  walked  down  in  the  yard  to  where 
a  large  train  was  made  up,  as  they  are  called.  T 
crawled  into  one  of  the  big  hoppers  and  in  about  ten 
minutes  they  coupled  a  large  engine  to  it  and  I  heard 
the  engine 'blow  two  long  whistles  and  about  that 
time  a  man  stuck  a  big  pistol  right  in  my  face  and  told 
me  to  get  out  of  there  and  to  get  out  d — n  quick.  I 
bounced  the  ground  in  a  hurry  and  begging  and  roll- 
ing on  the  ground  playing  that  I  had  sprained  my 
ankle.  The  man  tried  to  make  me  walk,  but  I  still 
played  off  cripple.  He  told  me  to  sit  down  and  he 
asked  me  what  I  was  doing  there  and  I  simply  told 
him  the  truth  and  he  got  sorry  for  me  and  told  me 
that  he  would  turn  me  loose  this  time,  but  watch  out 
for  the  second  time.  I  asked  him  to  get  me  a  walking 
cane,  which  he  did,  and  I  started  hopping  along  up 
through  the  yard.  Just  as  soon  as  I  got  out  of  sight  I 
threw  my  cane  away  and  sat  down  and  took  a  good, 
long,  hearty  laugh  and  then  got  up  and  walked  seven 
miles  to  the  nearest  railroad  station,  and  while  there 
I  met  an  old  soldier  making  his  way  for  Stonega  and 
when  the  train  stopped  it  happened  to  be  a  water  tank 
station,  and  while  they  were  taking  water  my  soldier 
partner  broke  the  seal  and  it  was  a  carload  of  hay  for 
Stonega.  We  both  jumped  in  and  the  next  morning 
we  were  setting  in  front  of  the  Big  Red  Stable  at 
Stonega.  I  got  me  a  place  to  board  and  the  second 
day  got  a  job  in  the  mines  trapping  at  90  cents  per 
day.  Later  on  I  got  a  job  driving  a  hard-tail,  or  a 
mule,  in  the  mines  at  $1.30  per  day.  On  the  20th  day 
of  February  I  went  home  on  a  visit  and  took  mother 
and  the  four  boys  in  the  lower  room  and  poured  out 


v  ;■'  >'sss « *:V:'.i-  "i  :■ '  .- 


V'  4, 


*       "II  1M    I 

•   ;  ■ -         ;/, 


36  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

on  the  bed  $23.00,  all  in  one-dollar  bills.  They  were 
all  scattered  out  on  the  bed.  Everybody  thought  that 
was  some  sight.  That  much  money  those  days  and 
money  was  scarce.  I  told  mother  that  it  was  for  them 
all  and  for  her  to  keep  the  boys  in  school  and  I  would 
go  back  to  my  job  and  make  some  more. 

On  the  seventh  day  of  May  the  mine  foreman  put 
me  to  running  an  old-fashioned  Jeffries  motor.  I 
worked  one  month  on  that  job  and  went  home  again. 
It  was  thirty-three  miles  across  the  big  Black 
Mountains  and  across  the  Cumberland  River  and  then 
across  the  Pine  Mountains  to  old  Uncle  Oby  Fields' 
on  the  head  of  Big  Cowan  Creek,  then  across  a  small 
hill  onto  the  head  of  Kingdom  Come  (the  creek  which 
John  Fox,  Jr.,  wrote  his  two  books  on),  and  down 
Kingdom  Come  to  the  mouth  of  it  and  then  down  the 
river  seven  miles  to  my  mother's  at  the  mouth  of 
Rockhouse.  That  was  a  pretty  good  walk  for  a  boy 
only  seventeen  years  old. 

I  gave  my  mother  on  this  trip  $45.00  and  she  was 
awfully  pleased  with  me  and  said:  "Fess,  we  need  the 
money  bad  enough,  but  you  air  gittin'  'long  bad  in 
yer  education,  and  I  can't  hardly  stand  ter  see  yer  do 
that." 

"After  I  get  the  other  boys  where  they  can  take 
care  of  theirselves  I'll  finish  my  education,"  I  replied, 
"I  am  now  going  to  jine  the  army." 

During  the  Spanish- American  War,  February  12, 
1898,  I  enlisted  for  two  years-  or  long  as  the  war 
lasted.  I  was  signed  to  Company  L,  Fourth  Ken- 
tucky Volunteers,  and  was  stationed  at  Lexington. 
After  I  had  been  signed  to  my  company  there  was  a 
big  fellow  come  around  and  asked  something  smart, 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  37 

thinking  he  was  one  of  those  smart  fellows,  and  before 
he  conld  think  I  had  knocked  him  down  with  a  big 
garbage  bucket  and  I  had  him  whipped  before  he 
found  it  out.  That  built  my  reputation  during  my 
service  in  Company  L. 

My  Captain  .was  Ben  B.  Golden,  of  Barbourville, 
Ky.,  and  before  time  to  discharge  us  volunteers  after 
peace  was  made  the  Captain  resigned  and  H.  J.  Cock- 
ron  was  signed  as  Captain  of  Company  L.  And  when 
the  First  Sergeant,  James  Day,  of  Whitesburg,  Ky., 
made  out  all  the  discharges  for  the  Captain  to  sign 
the  Captain  came  in  the  office  at  Anniston,  Ala.,  where 
we  were  discharged,  to  sign  the  discharges  and  he 
took  up  with  the  Sergeant  alphabetically  and  asked 
about  each  man  whom  he  did  not  know  personally. 
When  he  came  to  my  name  he  asked  the  Sergeant  if 
that  was  the  man  that  laughed  so  much  and  the  Ser- 
geant told  him  it  was,  so  he  had  me  put  down  excel- 
lent character.  Then  Captain  Cockron  signed  the  dis- 
charges. 

During  the  time  we  were  in  camp  at  Lexington 
some  of  the  boys  in  my  company  got  body  lice  all  over 
them  and  I  got  scared  and  took  my  dog  tent  and 
stretched  it  up  under  some  hedge  trees  next  to  the 
railroad  track,  and  the  first  night  the  train  went  by 
at  11  o'clock  and  she  whistled  some  awfully  large 
yells  and  scared  me  and  I  jumped  up  in  my  sleep  and 
tore  my  dog  tent  all  to  pieces.  I  thought  the  train 
was  running  over  me.  So  the  next  day  I  fixed  my 
tent  up  and  got  me  some  wheat  straw  and  made  me 
a  bed  and  ditched  the  water  around  my  tent  and  it 
sure  did  do  some  raining  that  spring  and  my  bed  rot- 
ted.   Sleeping  in  so  damp  a  place  I  took  the  fever  and 


38  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

was  taken  to  a  hospital.   After  three  days  I  was  taken 
out  of  that  hospital  and  put  in  a  division    hospital, 
where  I  just  did  live.    After  three  months  in  the  hos- 
pital some  of  the  boys  told  me  if  I  could  make  my  tem- 
perature register  98  degrees  three  times  in  succession 
I  could  get  out,  and  the  same  fellow  told  me  how  to 
do.     He  said  when  the  thermometer  was  put  in  my 
mouth  and  I  caught  the  doctor  looking  off  to  draw 
my  breath  hard  so  as  to  cool  the  thermometer,  which 
I  did,  and  on  the  fourth  day  the  doctor  ordered  the 
nurse  to  bring  in  my  uniform   and  to  let  me    set  up 
some.     So  when  they  brought  that  dear  old  uniform 
it  was  rolled  up  in  a  dear  old  American  flag  that  I  had 
offered  to  sacrifice  my  life  for.    The  doctors  had  given 
me  up  to  die  and  had  ordered  the  nurse  to  wrap  my 
clothes  up  in  the  flag  so  it  would  be  placed  with  me. 
It  was  over  one-half  of  the  time  that  I  did  not  know 
anything,  but  when  I  did  come  to  myself  mother  was 
the  first  I  thought  about.  She  had  been  notified,  but  on 
account  of  being  so  poor,  no  money  and  so  many  miles 
away  from  the  railroad  she  could  not  come,  but  waited 
in  great  patience  to  hear  from  me.    The  first  letter  I 
received  after  I  could  tell  the  nurse  who  my  mother 
was  and  her  address  I  got  a  letter  in  return  in  a  few 
days    and  it  is  still   written   upon   my   heart  in  large 
American  tears  like  the  dear  old  mothers  are  shedding 
for  their  loved  ones  who  are  in  France  today  in  those 
cold  trenches  and  dugouts  and  mud  and  water  up  to 
their  waists  and  the  top  of    the  earth    covered  with 
snow  and  ice  nine  feet  thick,  fighting  for  the  freedom 
of  America,  which  we  are  sure  to  win  if  God  lets  this 
world   stand,    and    I    believe   we   will   win   this   war 
during    1918. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  39 


After  I  got  my  uniform  and  put  it  on  with  many 
wrinkles  in  it  after  being  rolled  up  for  about  four 
months,  I  sure  did  look  funny.  I  was  so  thin  the  sun 
shined  through  me.  After  about  twelve  days  I  got 
able  to  go  and  I  was  put  in  an  ambulance  and  taken 
to  the  Southern  Depot  at  Lexington  and  transported 
to  Anniston,  Ala.,  where  I  was  signed  back  to  my  old 
company.  When  I  walked  up  through  my  company 
street  there  was  the  worst  surprised  set  of  young  men 
I  ever  saw.  They  all  thought  I  was  dead  and  had  for- 
gotten me,  but  when  they  realized  it  was  sure  Fess 
they  all  sure  did  rejoice. 

As  soon  as  I  got  strong  enough  to  do  guard  duty 
I  was  put  on  guard  over  at  Division  Headquarters. 
I  was  put  on  the  third  relief  and  I  dreaded  to  see  night 
come.  But  about  11 :30  that  night  the  corporal  of  the 
guard  woke  me  up  and  said:  "Get  up,  third  relief." 

I  got  up,  straightened  myself  up  and  got  my  belt 
and  gun. 

"Outside,  third  relief,"  he  said,  and  lined  us  up  and 
started  around  with  us.  I  was  put  on  first  post.  My 
beat  was  from  the  guardhouse  to  the  end  of  No.  2 
post,  where  there  was  a  large  tent  stretched  up  On 
the  inside  were  two  big  dry  goods  boxes  and  a  dead 
man  stretched  on  each  box  covered  with  a  white  sheet. 
The  corporal  and  the  man  I  relieved  told  me  that  I 
was  not  to  let  any  dogs  or  cats  eat  on  those  men,  and 
every  round  I  was  to  go  in  and  look  at  them.  That 
made  the  cold  chills  run  all  over  me  and  my  hair  stood 
straight  up. 

It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  May  and  the  wind  was 
blowing  and  it  was  cloudy.  The  clouds  were  running- 
like  they  do  lots  of  times  when  the  moon  is  shining. 


40  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

My  post  was  up  on  a  ridge  and  the  railroad  yard  was 
down  on  one  side  and  the  engine  was  running  up  and 
down  through  the  yards  and  the  old  bells  ringing  and 
on  the  other  side  was  an  old  coralle  and  every  once  in 
awhile  you  could  hear  an  old  mule  blowing  his  whistle 
sounding  ju§t  like  "How  are  you,  Fess?"  On  my  sec- 
ond round  when  I  got  up  in  about  ten  feet  of  the  tent 
and  the  flaps  were  flapping  awfully  and  scared  me 
very  bad,  but  I  went  in  and  looked  at  the  dead  men. 
When  I  started  back,  walking  very  fast,  an  old  cat 
about  twenty  feet  of  me  went  "meow."  I  am 
sure  I  could  have  heard  it  one-half  mile  and  it  just 
simply  scared  me  to  death,  and  when  I  got  to  the 
guardhouse  I  loaded  my  gun  and  got  my  back  up 
against  the  tent  and  there  I  stood  until  I  saw  the  first 
relief  coming  to  relieve  me.  Nobody  knows  how  good 
I  felt  when  I  saw  the  light  coming  down  the  ridge  to 
relieve  me. 

I  came  off  post  duty  at  10  o'clock  and  I  was  asked 
to  stay  and  assist  the  doctors  in  operating  upon  those 
two  dead  men,  which  I  did.  I  had  to  light  their  cigars 
and  put  them  in  their  mouths  while  they  were  cutting 
them  up.  They  took  their  insides  out  and  put  them 
in  a  dishpan,  cut  their  heads  open  and  took  their 
brains  out  separately  and  took  their  backbones  out 
and  cut  into  twenty-four  pieces.  The  soldiers  were 
dying  from  a  disease  called  spinal  meningitis  and  they 
were  trying  to  stop  it.  After  the  operation  their 
bodies  were  put  back  together  and  well  dressed  and 
put  in  caskets  and  shipped  home.  After  I  got  my  rest 
on  guard  I'was  picked  out  of  the  company  and  put  in 
the  kitchen  to  help  John  Gibson  cook,  which  job  I  held 
until  discharged  in  1899.     After  I  was  discharged  in 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  41 

1899  I  returned  to  my  old  Kentucky  home  back  in  the 
mountains,  forty  miles  from  the  railroad,  which  I  had 
to  walk. 

After  I  spent  thirteen  days  with  my  mother  I 
slipped  off  and  walked  to  Jackson,  Ky.,  a  distance  of 
sixty-five  miles,  and  enlisted  for  two  years  and  was 
sent  to  Cuba  and  was  signed  to  Col.  Teddy  Roose- 
velt's brigade.  That  was  where  Teddy  and  I  first  met. 
He  soon  took  a  liking  to  me,  and  after  the  Battle  of 
Santiago  Teddy,  without  a  wound  and  I  with  a  bullet 
wound  in  my  left  arm,  took  me  by  the  hand  and  said: 
"Fess,  we  have  gained  a  great  battle  for  our  country. 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


You  or  I  will  be  the  next  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  if  you  get  the  nomination  I  am  for  you, 
and  if  I  get  the  nomination  I  want  you  to  be  for  me, 
for  you  have  a  great  influence  in  the  United  States." 
We  shook  hands  and  parted.  So  Teddy  was  from 
the  North  and  had  more  votes  than  the  South  and 
beat  me  to  the  nomination.  But  I  was  for  him  and 
am  still  for  him. 

After  eighteen  months  in  Cuba  I  was  discharged 
and  returned  to  my  same  old  Kentucky  home.  When 
Teddy  raised  the  standing  army  from  twenty-five 
thousand  to  sixty-five  thousand  I  became  a  soldier 
again.  I  was  then  twenty-one  years  old,  that  being 
August  23,  1901.     For   three   years  I  served.     I  was 


42 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


signed  to  the  Fort  Slocum  (New  York)  Recruiting 
Station,  and  thirty  days  later  I  was  signed  to  the 
"114th  Company,  Coast  Artillery,"  Fort  Totten,  N. 
Y.,  under  Capt.  John  W.  Ruckman,  Lieut.  Balentine 
and  Kesling.  After  I  had  been  in  that  company  for 
a  few  months  the  Top  Sergeant  made  me  chief  cook, 
which  job  I  held  for  six  months.  Then  I  asked  the 
Top  Sergeant  to  take  me  out  of  the  kitchen,  which 
he  did.  Then  I  had  to  go  doing  guard  duty  again.  I 
soon  began  to  be  an  expert  orderly  bucker,  which  I 
was  hard  to  beat  on.  One  time  I  know  two  of  us  boys 
were  picked  to  do  orderly,  so  we  took  our  bayonets 
and  cut  the  guard  manual.  McGlofm  cut  "C"  and  I 
cut  "T"  and  I  was  beat  and  was  given  No.  2  post. 
The  next  day  about  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  Capt. 
Landers  walked  up  on  me  and  said,  "Why  don't  you 
arrest  those  two  men?" 

I  presented  arms  to  him  and  came  to  port  arms  and 
asked,  "What  two  men,  sir?" 

"What  two?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  I  replied. 

"Those  two  men  going  yonder,"  he  said. 

"What  for,  sir?"  I  again  asked. 

"For  being  drunk,"  he  replied. 

"They  are  not  drunk,"  I  said. 

"I  am  going  to  prefer  charges  against  you,"  he 
told  me. 

"Very  well,  sir,"  I  replied,  presenting  arms  again 
to  him. 

He  went  on  down  to  the  guardhouse  to  prefer 
charges  against  me,  and  sure  enough  he  met  two 
drunken  men  that  No.  1  had  let  in.  Old  Toomy  was 
walking  No.  1  post,  so  the  captain  had  his  belt  pulled 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  43 

and  put  him  in  the  guardhouse  and  I  saw  the  corporal 
•of  the  guard  coming  with  one  man  and  I  knew  that 
my  time  was  coming  next. 

So  the  corporal  came  up  and  said  to  me,  "Turn  over 
your  orders,"  which  I  did.  "Give  me  your  gun  and 
belt."  I  also  did  that.  "Forward  march  and  down  to 
the  guardhouse." 

I  went,  and  at  noon  on  Sunday  everybody  in  my 
company  was  very  much  surprised  to  see  me  in  the 
guardhouse  after  I  had  been  beat  for  orderly.  So  in 
the  afternoon  the  Sergeant  of  the  Guardhouse  sent 
me  and  Toomy  to  our  quarters  under  heavy  guards 
to  get  our  old  fatigue  suits  and  to  put  our  good  clothes 
away.  Monday  morning  I  was  taken  out  with  the 
rest  of  the  prisoners  and  lined  up  and  counted  and 
then  signed  to  do  certain  work.  I  v/as  put  on  the  slop 
cart  and  a  guard  over  us.  We  had  to  go  to  all  the 
quarters  and  mess  halls  and  get  the  slop  and  haul  it 
off.  I  and  Toomy  were  to  be  tried  at  10  o'clock  and 
it  was  raining  something  awful.  My  old  campaign 
hat  had  leaked  and  my  face  was  all  striped  with  dirt, 
so  when  we  got  over  to  headquarters  they  put  Toomy 
on  trial  first  and  the  court  placed  Toomy's  fine  at  $10 
and  ten  days  in  the  guardhouse.  They  called  me  in 
before  the  court  and  the  judge  read  the  charges  to 
me  and  asked  me  what  I  had  to  say. 

"Not  guilty,  sir,"  was  my  reply. 

The  judge  asked  me  if  I  wanted  any  witnesses,  and 
Itold  him  I  did,  so  he  took  the  names  of  the  witnesses 
and  the  commanding  officer's  orderly  was  called  in 
and  the  judge  told  him  what  to  do.  So  we  started  in 
on  my  case.  The  men  that  tried  me  were  commis- 
sioned officers  and  I  was  only  an  enlisted  man,  but 


44  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

we  were  all  working  for  Uncle  Sam,  so  we  started  in 
on  the  case  and  I  stood  in  with  them.  After  taking 
the  proof  I  asked  the  judge  to  give  me  ten  minutes  to 
argue  my  case.  The  judge  was  surprised,  but  accord- 
ing to  the  army  rules  he  had  to  grant  me  that  priv- 
ilege, and  if  I  ever  did  put  up  an  argument  that  was 
one  time  I  did,  and  I  soon  won  my  case,  and  right 
there  I  started  building  myself  in  the  army.  Just 
after  I  got  out  of  the  guardhouse  my  old-time  partner, 
Teddy  Roosevelt,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  always  doing  something  good  for  someone,  had 
an  order  issued  from  the  War  Department  stating 
that  all  non-commissioned  officers  must  be  first-class 
gunners.  All  of  the  companies  were  lined  up  and 
asked  by  the  Captains  how  many  wanted  to  go  up  for 
the  examination.  I  stepped  out  and  all  of  the  rest  of 
the  company  laughed  at  me.  I  was  put  in  school  at 
Fort  Totten  for  a  while  and  soon  was  taken  out  of 
school  at  Fort  Totten  and  sent  to  Fortress  Monroe, 
Va.,  to  a  fine  army  school,  and  from  there  I  was  sent 
to  Governor's  Island,  N.  Y.,  and  from  there  to  Fort 
McKinley,  Maine.  So  after  the  officers  thought  that 
they  had  me  alright  I  was  examined  under  orderly 
No.  52-189  and  was  qualified  as  a  first-class  gunner.' 
I  was  examined  on  a  14-inch  gun  at  Fort  McKinley, 
Maine.  My  target  was  pulled  by  a  tugboat  making 
sixteen  knots  per  hour  and  the  distance  was 
twenty-two  miles  out  in  the  ocean  and  I  hit  the  target 
four  shots  out  of  five.  The  target  was  only  12  feet 
square  at  the  bottom  and  6  inches  at  the  top,  canvas 
stretched  all  around  it  and  a  6-inch  black  stripe 
painted  around  the  target.  One  of  my  shots  struck 
the  small  target.  The  bullet  which  I  used  weighed 
2,250  pounds  and    the    powder    charge  weighed  640 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  45 

pounds.  I  had  to  load  and  fire  that  gun  every  sixteen 
seconds.  Fort  McKinley  is  located  on  the  banks  of 
the  Casco  harbor,  main  channel  to  the  Atlantic  ocean, 
what  is  known  to  the  War  Department  as  the  "She 
Big  Bar."  I  was  examined  at  Fort  Totten,  N.  Y.,  on 
the  rest  of  the  examination,  which  are  lots.  On  Long 
Island  Sound  there  is  one  of  the  best  army  instruct- 
ing schools  in  the  army  today.  After  I  had  qualified 
as  a  first-class  gunner  then  I  was  promoted  to  a  non- 
commissioned officer  and  signed  back  to  my  same  old 
"114th  Company,"  then  I  was  appointed  by  my  Cap- 
tain as  an  instructor.  I  was  picked  out  of  the  New 
York  harbor  of  19,000  men  and  put  on  the  recruiting 
service  on  a  salary  of  $65.00,  board  and  railroad  fare 
and  traveling  expenses  and  going  over  the  country 
getting  men  for  the  army,  which  job  I  held  until  I 
was  discharged. 

I  was  discharged  out  of  the  army  August  22,  1904. 
I  now  hold  two  discharges  of  excellent  character, 
first-class  gunner  and  non-commissioned  officer's  war- 
rant. Soon  as  I  was  discharged  I  bought  me  a  ticket 
for  Norton,  Va.,  from  Norton  to  my  old  mining  and 
railroad  station,  Stonega,  Va.,  and  then  I  pulled  across 
the  Big  Black  Mountain  through  the  same  old  way 
as  I  had  traveled  when  a  boy  to  my  mother's  home. 

Soon  as  I  got  home  all  of  the  girls  began  to  come 
in  to  see  me  and  I  sure  could  court  some.  All  the  girls 
were  struck  on  me  because  I  was  a  soldier,  and  after 
a  man  has  been  a  soldier  for  four  or  five  years  and 
gets  back  home  and  there  being  so  many  pretty  girls 
he  wants  to  marry.  So  I  got  struck  on  four  real  pretty 
girls,  Susan  Cornett,  Tina  Breeding,  Mary  Amburgey 
and  the  one  that  made  the  winning,  Mantie  Ison. 
When  I  made  up  my  mind  which  one  I  loved  best  I 
sure  set  in  to  courtin'. 


46 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


I  first  got  struck  on  my  wife  it  was  down  on  Cau- 
dill's  Branch  to  "old  Stiller  Bill"  Caudill's  funeral. 
He  had  made  so  much  moonshine  that  he  bore  the 
name  of  "Stiller  Bill."  He  had  been  dead  ten  years 
and  had  12  grown  children,  187  grandchildren  and  91 
great-grandchildren  to  mourn  his  death.  His  funeral 
was  preached  by  the  old  regular  Baptist  and  Ira 
Combs  was  up  preaching.  It  was  then  that  I  looked 
under  a  big  beech  tree  and  I  saw  a  big,  fine  looking 
country  girl.  She  weighed  about  160  pounds,  had  blue 
eyes,  black  hair  and  big,  fine,  red,  rosy  cheeks  that 
God  had  given  her  and  she  had  a  nose  as  large  as  a 
banana. 

Something  went  down  in  my  heart  and  it  really 
smothered  me  so  I  kept  my  eyes  on  her,  and  the  more 
that  I  looked  at  her  the  prettier  she  got.  Finally  she 
got  up  and  went  out  to  an  old  country  spring  to  get 
a  drink,  so  I  got  up  and  went  out  to  follow  her.  I  went 
right  to  her  and  said,  "Mantie,  I  am  struck  on  you." 

"Now  you  are  just  trying  to  make  fun  of  me,"  she 
said. 

"No,  I  mean  what  I  say,"  said  I,  and  so  we  began 
to  talk  and  she  and  I  went  back  down  to  where  they 
were  preaching. 

After  the  meeting  was  over  I  asked  her  what  she 
was  riding  and  where  her  horse  was.  She  told  me  she 
was  riding  "old  George."  The  horse  had  built  a  good 
reputation  by  being  a  good  horse  to  tram  logs.  So  I 
rode  by  her  side  home  and  after  we  got  home  we 
began  sparking  and  after  months  courtin'  we  one 
Sunday  were  sittin'  in  an  old-fashioned  country  rock- 
ing chair  out  in  the  back  porch.  I  had  her  talked 
down  and  all  she  could  do  was  just  rock  and  nod  her 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  47 

head  to  what  I  said.  She  had  never  seen  a  railroad  or 
a  train  of  any  kind  and  she  had  never  been  to  Whites- 
burg,  the  county  seat  of  Letcher.  She  had  been  kept 
out  of  school  to  help  her  father  run  his  farm.  She 
could  not  talk  up  with  me,  so  I  got  her  head  to  nod- 
ding to  everything  I  said,  and  I  asked  her  what  she 
thought  about  us  getting  married.  She  nodded  right 
into  it  and  I  went  home  that  evening  tickled  to  death, 
I  was  so  well  pleased  I  couldn't  sleep  a  wink  that 
night. 

The  next  morning  about  4  o'clock  I  got  up  and  got 
my  horse  and  pulled  for  Whitesburg  to  the  County 
Clerk's  office.  It  was  a  distance  of  about  eighteen 
miles  and  was  on  December  13,  and  the  worst  old 
sloppy,  muddy  time  ever  was,  but  I  didn't  care,  for  I 
was  goin'  to  git  married. 

After  I  got  my  license  I  pulled  back  down  the  river 
and  got  to  her  home  just  before  daybreak  and  went  in. 
They  all  slept  in  one  room,  had  five  big  feather  beds 
and  my  sweetheart  was  laying  in  one  of  them,  I  told 
her  to  get  up,  that  I  had  them. 

"Got  what?"  she  said. 

"The  license,"  I  told  her. 

She  just  laughed  at  me,  and  don't  you  know  I  had 
to  set  in  and  court  her  about  ten  more  days  before  she 
would  agree  to  marry  me. 

After  she  agreed  the  second  time  we  set  the  day. 
About  seventy-five  or  a  hundred  people  came  in  to 
help  eat  the  wedding  dinner,  and  the  biggest  part  of 
them  stayed  for  the  dance.  When  we  all  started 
around  on  Elk  Creek  to  get  married  I  turned  my 
horse  over  to  my  wife  to  ride  and  her  father  brought 
out  an  old  mule  for  me  to  ride.     She  had  the  name  of 


48  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

being  the  meanest  mule  in  Letcher  County.  Her 
name  was  "Dinah."  So  I  put  the  saddle  on  and  she 
only  humped  up  a  little,  but  when  I  put  my  foot  in  the 
stirrup  and  threw  my  leg  across  the  saddle  the  old 
mule  started  right  around  the  hill  with  me  bucking 
and  jumping.  And  mother  began  shouting  and  my 
wife  liked  to  'fainted  and  had  to  be  taken  off  my  horse 
After  we  all  got  straightened  out  we  all  went  down 
on  Elk  Creek  and  the  late  Jim  Dixon,  founder  of  the 
old  Regular  Baptist  Church  of  Indian  Bottom,  told 
us  to  stand  up  and  to  look  him  straight  in  the  eye  and 
said  don't  neither  one  of  you  laugh  or  cry.  And  the 
good  old  man  went  on  and  married  us.  Soon  after 
our  marriage  we  moved  out  to  keep  house  in  an  old 
schoolhouse  on  Burton  Hill. 

Mother  gave  me  six  hens  and  one  rooster,  one  old 
sow  and  one  pig,  one  cow  and  calf,  one  big  feather 
bed  and  two  pillows  and  my  wife  got  the  same  from 
her  folks. 

We  started  out  living  very  nice  and  happy,  but  my 
mind  was  on  rambling,  as  I  had  been  traveling.  On 
January  7  my  wife  became  sick  and  I  had  to  go  after 
Dr.  Roark  on  Montgomery  Creek,  about  eighteen 
miles.  All  my  father-in-law's  mules  were  gone  to 
Stonega  after  a  load  of  goods  except  old  "Dinah,"  and 
I  was  compelled  to  ride  her.  So  I  saddled  her  up 
about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and  a  man  held  her 
until  I  got  on,  then  I  struck  out  down  the  river  and 
up  Elk  Creek  across  a  big  mountain  and  on  to  the 
head  of  Bull  Creek,  up  Bull  Creek  apiece  and  across 
another  hill  on  to  the  head  of  Montgomery  and  down 
Montgomery  to  the  mouth  of  Dr.  Roark's  Branch, 
up  the  branch  to  Dr.  Roark's  house.    I  got  there  about 


50  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

10:45  that  night.  Dr.  Roark  could  not  come  and  fixed 
me  some  medicine  and  I  started  back  and  went  out 
to  the  fence  to  where  I  had  hitched  old  Dinah  and 
when  I  went  to  get  on  her  she  started  down  the  branch 
kicking  and  bucking.  I  finally  stopped  her  and  got 
her  started  out  O.  K.  down  the  branch,  and  as  I  went 
back  across  the  mountain  at  the  head  of  Montgomery 
it  was  very  dark  and  my  old  friend  "Dinah"  got  out 
of  the  road  and  we  got  lost  in  .the  top  of  the  mountain. 
I  got  off  of  my  old  mule,  took  the  bridle  in  my  hand 
and  started  for  the  bottom  of  the  hill  and  I  came  to  a 
little  log  house  dobbed  with  mud  and  a  board  loft, 
nowadays  called  the  ceiling.  I  yelled  and  yelled  and 
finally  a  man  came  to  the  door  and  said,  "What  do 
you  want?"  I  asked  him  who  lived  there  and  he  told 
me  John  Hall.  I  got  down  and  went  into  the  house 
and  he  took  one  of  the  boards  out  of  his  house  loft  and 
split  it  up  and  made  a  torchlight  and  told  me  how  to 
go  and  went  out  to  the  fence  with  me.  I  got  on  old 
Dinah  and  the  man  handed  me  up  the  torch,  made  out 
of  boards,  and  when  I  started  the  sparks  from  the 
torch  began  to  fall  on  the  old  mule  and  she  began  to 
run  and  kick.  After  a  little  distance  I  had  to  throw 
the  torch  down  and  I  was  in  the  dark  again  and  in  the 
mountain.  I  had  to  let  the  old  mule  be  the  boss,  as 
she  could  see  and  I  could  not.  Finally  she  got  in  the 
road  again  and  didn't  stay  no  time  until  she  got  in 
under  some  pines  where  it  was  awfully  dark  and  got 
lost  again.  Along  about  2  o'clock  in  the  morning  I 
rode  up  to  another  log  hut.  After  yelling  several 
times  someone  came  to  the  door  and  I  asked  him  who 
lived  there,  and  he  said  Jofin  Kail.  There  we  were 
back  to  the  same  place  again.  I  asked  Mr.  Hall  if 
there  was  not  another  road  I  could  take  that  would 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


51 


get  me  out  of  there.  He  told  me  how  to  go  through 
the  hill  to  Preacher  Jim  Caudill's,  my  old  school 
teacher.  And  I  started  off,  and  after  about  one  hour 
I  got  on  top  of  the  hill  and  got  lost  again.  It  was  so 
dark  and  I  could  not  find  my  way  out,  as  there  were 
no  moon  and  stars  shining.  So  I  got  down  and  took 
my  bridle  in  hand  and  made  for  the  bottom,  and  just 
before  daylight  I  came  to  another  house  and  hollowed 
and  a  woman  came  to  the  door  and  asked  me  what  T 
wanted.  I  inquired  who  lived  there  and  she  told  me 
John  Hall.  Now,  I  thought  I  had  come  to  a  new 
house  on  account  of  the  woman,  but  when  she  told  me 
John  Hall  lived  there  I  thought  I  would  fall  off  of 
that  old  mule  I  was  so  surprised  and  I  simply  got 
down  and  went  into  the  house  and  waited  until  it 
began  to  break  day. 

After  it  got  light  I  started  and  finally  got  out  of  the 
head  of  Bull  Creek  and  got  back  home  just  as  they 
were  eating  breakfast.    My  wife  very  much  improved. 

My  father-in-law,  Jeff  Ison,  had  been  elected  Justice 
of  the  Peace,  and  J.  P.  Lewis  had  been  elected  Judge, 
and  as  yet  no  Constable  had  been  elected,  so  my 
father-in-law  began  to  beg  me  to  let  him  have  me 
sworn  in  as  his  Deputy  Constable.  My  wife  cried  and 
made  fun  of  me,  but  Jeff  and  I  got  on  our  mules  and 
rode  to  Whitesburg  to  court,  and  Judge  Lewis,  now 
Secretary  of  State,  swore  me  in  for  the  office.  The 
first  raid  I  got  in  was  the  arrest  of  twenty-two  men 
and  women,  known  as  Barlows  and  Engles.  After  I 
got  the  warrants  I  did  not  summons  anybody  to  help 
me.  I  played  Johnnie  Wise  and  got  all  the  dope  I 
could  on  them.  There  were  three  bunches  of  them. 
I  got  one  man  to  help  me  one  night  and  I  had  to  cross 


52  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

a  very  big  mountain,  and  about  11  o'clock  in  the  night 
I  was  right  in  the  head  of  Island  Branch  and  I  slipped 
up  to  a  little  old  board  or  log  house  that  stood  on  the 
side  of  the  hill.  It  had  board  doors  and  no  windows 
and  one  old  big  chimney  and  puncheon  floor  made  out 
of  chestnut  wood.  I  had  a  mall  in  my  hand  and  two 
good  guns  on  Ine.  The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  hit  the 
old  board  door  with  the  old  hickory  mall  with  all  my 
strength,  and  when  I  hit  the  door  flew  open  just  like 
lightning  had  struck  it.  I  was  in  the  house  before  you 
could  tell  how  I  got  in,  and  I  summoned  everybody 
under  arrest.  Four  men  and  three  women  came  out 
of  those  old  shuck  beds  just  like  wild  hogs  and  come 
right  at  me.  My  man  I  had  summoned  to  help  me 
had  got  scared  and  run  off  and  left  me.  I  began  shott- 
ing at  them,  not  to  kill,  but  to  scare  them.  I  knocked 
down  two  of  the  men  and  while  I  was  putting  hand- 
cuffs on  them  one  man  by  the  name  of  Nathan  Engle 
went  up  the  chimney  and  got  away. 

So  I  brought  my  two  men  and  three  women  over 
to  George  Whitaker's,  at  the  head  of  Tolson  Creek, 
and  got  breakfast.  I  then  took  them  down  to  Jeff 
Ison's  and  fastened  them  up  in  one  of  his  rooms.  I 
then  set  out  to  catch  Nathan  Engle,  the  one  that  had 
got  away  from  me.  So  I  waylaid  a  small  road  on  the 
top  of  Campbell's  ridge  and  just  as  he  passed  I  nailed 
him  and  took  him  and  put  him  in  the  same  room  with 
the  rest  of  them. 

The  next  morning  I  went  down  to  Lower  Caudill's 
Branch  and  got  all  of  them  except  Mary  Engle.  She 
had  taken  refuge  in  a  large  cave  just  opposite  Jeff 
Ison's  on  top  of  a  high  ridge.  Her  mother  was  a  very 
poor  woman  and  she  came  up  and  told  Jeff  if  he  would 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  53 

give  her  ten  pounds  of  side  meat  she  would  tell 
where  Mary  was.  So  they  traded  and  Mr.  Ison  told 
me.  I  summoned  Gid  Hogg  to  help  me  make  the 
arrest.  I  placed  Hogg  in  the  county  road  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill  and  as  I  was  going  up  Elk  Creek  I  got  in 
behind  her  and  was  in  twent)^  feet  of  her  before  she 
knew  it.  She  made  for  the  cave  and  I  fired  at  her. 
Before  I  got  to  the  cave  I  saw  two  bright  objects  back 
in  the  cave  about  sixty  feet.  I  ordered  her  out  three 
times  and  the  last  time  began  firing  in  the  cave.  I 
saw  her  start.  The  mouth  of  the  cave  was  full  of 
smoke  and  she  ran  by  me  and  took  right  down  the 
mountain.  I  took  right  out  after  her.  She  ran  over 
rocks,  brush,  and  a  straight  line  to  where  I  had  Hogg 
placed.  When  she  saw  him  she  whirled  on  me  and 
made  for  her  bosom.  About  that  time  I  nailed  her 
and  told  Mr.  Hogg  to  search  her  and  he  took  a  .38 
bulldog  pistol  out  from  under  her  arm  beneath  her 
dress  waist.  She  was  so  mad  her  teeth  just  rattled. 
She  had  a  red  calico  dress  on,  which  cost  about  five 
cents  per  yard,  and  a  twenty-five-cent  boy  straw  hat 
on  which  was  painted  red  out  of  poke  berries  and 
three  chicken  feathers  dyed  blue  in  the  right  side  of 
her  hat.  She  was  barefooted  and  her  feet  were  all 
scratched  up  where  she  had  been  hiding  and  running 
around  in  the  woods  so  long.  So  I  took  her  in  and 
the  next  day  we  tried  them  and  they  all  were  con- 
victed and  found  guilty.  I  took  them  all  to  Whites- 
burg,  a  distance  of  eighteen  miles,  one  day  walking 
and  had  them  all  locked  up  in  jail. 

Two  years  ago  the  same  Nathan  Engle  betrayed 
his  father-in-law,  Billie  Combs,  and  told  him  that  he 
would  go  with  him  down  in  Perry  County  and  help 
get  his  wife  back,  who  was  known  as  the  famous  horse 


54 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


thief  of  Kentucky  for  a  woman.  So  poor  old  Billie 
got  him  a  piece  of  meat  and  bread  and  went  with  him. 
Nathan  put  him  under  a  cliff  and  told  him  to  stay  and 
he  would  go  around  to  one  of  the  Sloans',  who  had 
taken  Billie's  wife,  and  get  her  to  come  and  talk  with 
Billie.  The  old  man  fell  asleep  and  Nathan  slipped 
back  and  shot  out  the  old  man's  brains  and  come 
through  that  night  to  his  mother's.  The  old  man  was 
found  dead  on  the  third  day  by  an  old  man  cow  hunt- 
ing. He  was  brought  back  home  that  day  for  burial, 
and  Nathan  met  the  train  to  help  take  care  of  his  dead 
father-in-law,  whom  he  had  killed.  When  the  train 
stopped  at  Blackey  the  Sheriff  stepped  off  and  cap- 
tured Nathan  and  he  was  taken  to  Hazard  and  put 
in  jail  and  tried  and  sent  to  the  pen  for  life. 

In  April,  1905,  I  was  plowing  a  yoke  of  steers  in 
the  old  bent  held  on  Burton  Hill  and  there  was  noth- 
ing but  saw  briers.  My  wife  was  helping  me;  she 
was  driving.  About  10  o'clock  the  old  steers  took  a 
notion  to  go  to  the  river.  They  raised  their  heads  and 
started.  My  wife  had  a  rope  on  one  of  them  and  tried 
to  hold  them  and  got  her  foot  hung  under  a  bunch  of 
those  saw  briers  and  fell  down.  She  cried  awhile  and 
then  I  helped  her  up  and  we  quit  work.  The  birds 
and  the  toad  frogs  were  singing  and  my  mind  became 
rambling  and  I  pulled  for  Texas,  the  old  Lone  Star 
State,  and  stopped  in  Big  Springs,  Texas.  I  soon  got 
a  job  with  the  carpenters'  working  some  three  months 
there.  I  was  employed  by  the  Connell  Lumber  Com- 
pany, which  job  I  held  until  the  panic  of  1907.  After 
I  was  out  of  a  job  and  no  money,  and  having  a  wife 
and  one  child,  I  began  to  realize  what  I  had  to  do. 
So  the  T.  &  P.  Railroad  shop  was  there  and  Mr. 
Potten  was  master    mechanic  of    the    shops.     I  laid 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  55 

away  for  him  one  evening  and  hit  him  for  a  job.  I 
had  been  told  by  Fred  Leper  when  I  shook  hands  with 
Mr.  Potten  to  hold  tight  to  his  hand  and  tell  him 
about  Teddy  and  myself  in  Cuba  and  I  would  be 
granted  a  job.  So  I  did  what  Fred  told  me  to,  and  it 
worked  just  like  a  clock.  A  job  there  was  sure  worth 
something.  A  man  had  to  work  in  the  shop  those 
•days  when  the  times  was  good  about  eighteen  months 
before  he  could  get  out  on  the  road  or  ever  be  able  to 
fire  the  engine  for  old  Uncle  Johnnie.  I  began  on 
Monday;  one  week  and  ten  days  I  had  worked  out  of 
the  pits  to  a  bell  cleaner  and  I  was  cleaning  a  bell  one 
day  on  one  of  those  big  Western  Blair  engines  and 
George  Tamset,  the  roundhouse  foreman,  come  to  me 
and  told  me  to  go  out  there  and  fire  the  switch  engine 
for  Uncle  Johnnie.  There  had  been  a  wreck  up  at 
Midland  and  the  fireman  had  been  taken  off  of  the 
switch  engine  and  sent  to  help  bring  in  the  wrecked 
train.  So  I  got  on  the  switch  engine  one  day  and  Mr. 
Davis  got  mad  at  me  because  Mr.  Tamset  had  run  me 
around  all  of  the  roundhouse  men  and  I  was  not  to 
blame.  I  done  the  work  and  done  it  right  and  looked 
after  all  of  the  company  stuff.  So  Mr.  Davis  began 
to  say  dirty  things  about  me  and  finally  Homer 
Scragins  told  me  that  Davis  was  carrying  a  gun  for 
me  and  had  threatened  my  life  and  would  not  speak 
to  me. 

I  went  home  and  got  me  a  good  .44  pistol  and  put 
it  under  my  overalls  while  I  worked  and  at  dinner  I 
would  beat  the  other  boys  back  to  our  room.  Three 
of  us  boys  were  using  the  same  box  to  keep  our  dirty 
clothes  in  and  put  our  soap  and  towels  in.  When  the 
boys  would  open  the  box  there  was  the  .44  there. 


56  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

When  they  got  their  soap  and  towels  and  go  on  wash- 
ing I  would  slip  the  .44  back  in  my  pocket  for  protec- 
tion. One  day  I  passed  where  Davis  was  working  on 
the  engine  and  I  heard    him  say,  "There    goes    that 

d r ."  I  had  my  gun  on  me  and  as  I  went  back 

to  where  I  was  working  he  struck  at  me  with  a 
monkey  wrench.  Then  the  shooting  began.  I  put 
everyone  out  of  the  roundhouse.  Billie  Lee,  assistant 
foreman,  jumped  in  the  turntable  pit,  and  Davis  ran 
through  into  the  blacksmith  shop  and  ran  over  the 
blacksmith  foreman  and  got  away  and  never  has  been 
heard  of  since.  Of  course,  I  lost  my  job  for  fighting 
on  duty  and  got  tried  for  shooting  Davis. 

Davis  failed  to  appear  against  me  and  the  judge  dis- 
missed the  case.  I  got  tried  for  the  pistol,  was  prose- 
cuted by  County  Attorney  Brooks,  now  in  France, 
and  defended  by  Marson  &  Marson,  and  I  beat  the 
case.  They  never  could  prove  when  I  put  the  pistol 
on  me.  They  proved  I  had  it  in  the  box  and  I  proved 
I  had  the  right  because  my  body  had  been  threatened. 
I  lost  my  job  and  beat  my  cases.  I  couldn't  get 
another  job  and  so  I  had  enough  of  money  to  buy  my 
wife  a  ticket,  so  I  bought  a  ticket  for  her  home  in  Ken- 
tucky by  the  way  of  Louisville  and  Stonega  and 
thirty-five  miles  on  a  mule  home. 

I  then  started  on  another  hobo  trip  looking  for  a 
job.  I  went  to  the  yardmaster  in  the  Big  Springs 
yard,  whose  railroad  name  was  Bawley  and  told  him 
I  wanted  to  go  to  Aboline,  Texas,  on  a  freight,  so  he 
put  me  away  in  the  old  yard  shanty  and  told  me  I 
would  get  out  about  11  o'clock  that  night.  But  I 
failed  to  get  out  until  4  in  the  morning.  He  put  me 
in  the  third  car  from  the  engine,  and  when  I  got  in 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  57 

the  car  there  were  two  more  hoboes  in  the  car,  and 
by  the  time  we  got  to  Sweetwater,  Texas,  there  were 
eleven  of  us  all  in  the  same  car,  all  hoboes.  So  we 
pulled  into  Aboline  about  3  o'clock  the  next  day.  I 
soon  found  out  that  there  would  be  a  madeup  passen- 
ger train  out  of  there  over  the  Wichita  Valley  Rail- 
road to  the  Fort  Worth  &  Denver  Railroad,  so  I  went 
to  the  baggage  man  and  showed  him  that  I  belonged 
to  the  I.  O.  O.  F.  and  W.  O.  W.  and  was  dead  broke 
and  got  him  to  agree  to  carry  me,  and  he  told  me  to 
go  up  to  the  water  tank  and  hide  in  a  bunch  of 
mesquite  bushes  on  the  right,  and  when  the  engineer 
or  Hog  Head,  known  among  railroad  men  nickname 
for  engineers,  would  look  back  for  the  flagman's  high- 
ball and  run  and  get  between  the  water  tank  and  bag- 
gage car  and  after  he  got  a  chance  he  would  open  the 
baggage  door  and  let  me  in.  I  done  all  he  had  told 
me  to  do,  but  when  I  jumped  out  of  that  bunch  of 
bushes  to  run  for  the  train  there  were  three  more  men 
doing  the  same  thing.  So  we  all  caught  the  baggage 
car.  After  a  little  bit  my  old  baggage  friend  opened 
the  door  and  just  as  he  did  one  of  the  hoboes  jerked 
it  back.  So  we  all  rode  the  end  of  the  baggage  car 
and  put  our  feet  on  the  water  tank  to  rest  our  legs. 
We  stopped  over  to  take  water  and,  it  being  very  dark, 
the  fireman  did  not  see  us.  Next  to  the  last  stop  the 
negro  porter  caught  us  and  put  us  all  off.  But  just 
as  the  train  started  on  apast  me  I  caught  the  rear  end 
of  the  train  and  got  on  top  of  the  coaches.  They  went 
about  two  miles  and  found  out  I  was  on  top  of  the 
train  and  stopped  the  train  and  the  flagman  climbed 
up  on  top  after  me,  but  as  he  was  climbing  up  on  top 
I  was  going  down  the  left  side  of  the  baggage  car.  I 
jumped  off  and  run  out  in  the  prairie.   They  looked  all 


58  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

around  and  could  not  find  me,  so  they  pulled  out 
again.  Just  about  the  time  they  had  got  away  from 
me  I  went  under  the  car  on  the  rods  and  the  fireman 
saw  me  and  stopped  very  quick.  I  jumped  off  and  hit 
the  prairie  again.  This  time  the  old  Hog  Head  had 
released  his  engine  and  was  helping  the  flagman  and 
conductor  look  for  me.  They  were  all  highballing 
the  old  Hog  Head  and  got  away  from  me,  so  I  started 
out  walking  after  the  train  and  in  about  half  an  hour 
I  walked  into  Wichita  Falls,  Texas. 

I  went  down  to  the  yard  and  met  the  yard  crew  and 
told  them  what  a  trip  I  had  and  that  I  was  dead  broke 
and  I  had  a  brother  that  was  master  mechanic  for  the 
Fort  Worth  &  Denver  Railroad  at  Amarillo,  Texas. 
They  looked  up  the  record  and  found  that  I  was  right, 
so  they  took  me  to  the  restaurant  and  gave  me  a  nice 
breakfast  and  told  me  that  I  could  not  catch  a  through 
freight  for  Amarillo  before  9  p.  m.  The  first  No.  19 
would  be  due  at  9  p.  m.,  so  I  stayed  around  there  until 
noon  and  hit  the  day  crew  for  dinner.  They  were  glad 
to  give  me  dinner  because  I  could  tell  a  tale  to  suit 
anybody.  I  met  a  brother  I.  O.  O.  F.  and  I  had  a  real 
happy  day  at  Wichita  Falls,  Texas,  waiting  for  the 
first  No.  19  through  freight. 

About  8  p.  m.  I  goes  down  in  the  yard  and  meet  my 
same  old  night  bunch  all  sitting  around  talking.  They 
soon  knew  that  I  was  the  same  fellow.  One  of  them 
asked  me  where  I  was  from.  I  told  him  that  I  was 
from  Kentucky,  and  he  replied:  Kentucky,  first  19  is 
two  hours  late,  and  said  just  lay  down  and  we  will 
get  you  up  in  time.  One  of  the  boys  put  an  old  rain- 
coat over  me  and  at  11  p.  m.  sharp  they  called  me  and 
told  me  to  get  in  the  first  car  next  to  the  engine;  that 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  59 

it  was  loaded  with  lumber  for  Amarillo,  Texas.  I  got 
in  at  the  small  window  in  one  end  and  put  the  win- 
dow together  and  put  the  key  in  so  no  one  could  see 
me.  The  next  day  about  4  p.  m.  we  landed  in 
Amarillo.  I  took  my  key  out  and  opened  my  window 
and  climbed  out;  I  pulled  right  straight  across  town 
and  met  an  old  man  with  a  black  oilcan  made  like  the 
railroad  cans.  He  was  old  Uncle  Johnnie,  the  city 
pumper,  and  I  asked  him  if  he  knew  a  man  by  the 
name  of  Less  Whitaker  and  could  he  tell  me  where  he 
lived.  He  took  me  to  his  home  and  I  had  never  seen 
him  for  thirteen  years,  as  he  had  been  out  West  for 
his  health  seven  years  before  I  went  to  the  army  and 
I  served  six  years  in  the  army.  So  I  knocked  on  the 
door  and  a  nice  looking  Western  lady  came  to  the 
door  whom  I  had  never  seen  before,  as  my  brother 
had  got  married  in  Big  Springs,  Texas.  Of  course, 
I  was  very  black  and  dirty  and  had  an  old  dirty  suit 
of  overalls  on. 

I  said:  "Lady,  is  Less  here?"  stepping  up  to  her. 
"You  mean  Mr.  Whitaker?"  she  asked. 
"Yes,  mar'm,"  I  said. 
"He  is  at  the  shop'"  she  replied. 
"Don't  you    know  me?"  I  asked,    stepping  a  little 
closer. 

"No,  sir." 

"You  don't?   Don't  you  know  Fess?" 

"You  are  not  Mr.  Whitaker's  brother,  are  you?" 

"Yes,  mar'm." 

She  reached  out  her  hand  and  asked  me  to  come  in 
and  I  thanked  Uncle  Johnnie  and  he  went  back. 

I  told  her  the  little  story  that  I  had  been  telling.     I 
had  sent  my  grip  by  express  on  ahead  of  me  and  could 


60 


History   of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


LESS  WHITAKER  AND  FAMILY 
Assessor  and  tax  collector  Potter  County,  Texas,  1916-20 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  61 

not  get  it  out  that  night,  so  I  washed  up,  took  a  good 
bath  and  put  on  one  of  Less'  suits,  and  while  I  was 
doing  this  Ethel  got  me  supper.  After  supper  Ethel 
and  I  struck  out  for  the  roundhouse  and  found  Less 
in  the  office.  He  knew  me  in  a  moment,  and  we 
stayed  until  he  got  all  of  his  men  to  work  and  he  put 
Parker  as  foreman  and  we  all  went  to  the  city  and  had 
a  real  fine  time.  The  next  day  I  told  my  brother  all 
my  troubles  and  he  told  me  promotion  was  awful  slow 
on  the  Denver  railroad,  and  a  man  can  never  work 
himself  out  of  the  shop.  He  also  told  me  that  he  could 
get  me  a  job  firing  on  the  Santa  Fe  if  I  could  play  the 
game  and  he  said  that  the  Santa  Fe  made  more  fire- 
men and  engineers  than  any  other  railroad  in  the 
world.  I  told  him  Santa  Fe  for  me.  He  took  me  out 
to  the  Denver  shop  and  let  me  stay  two  or  three  days 
and  he  told  me  all  he  knew  and  showed  me  how  to  fill 
the  lubricator,  work  the  injector,  shake  the  grates  and 
explained  the  engine  thoroughly.  But  there  are  some 
differences  to  a  dead  engine  and  one  heated  up. 

He  took  me  on  the  fourth  day  to  the  Santa  Fe  shops 
and  took  me  to  the  officer  and  introduced  me  to  Mr. 
J.  R.  Cook  as  his  brother  and  as  an  old  experienced 
fireman  of  the  L.  &  N.  Railroad.  So  Mr.  Cook  replied 
that  he  had  just  promoted  ten  men  and  was  needing 
firemen.  So  he  took  me  down  to  have  me  examined 
and  reported  back.  I  got  by  the  doctors  all  right  and 
Mr.  Cook  gave  me  a  blank  to  fill  out,  and  of  course 
my  brother  filled  it  out  and  told  me  how  to  do  and 
what  to  say.  Mr.  Cook  passed  me  and  took  my  name 
and  hung  me  up  on  the  extra  board.  I  was  seventeen 
times  out.  It  was  about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  I 
left  the  number  of  the  house  where  I  would  be  so  the 


62 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


callboy  could  find  me,  and  of  course  I  did  not  sleep 
any  that  night  for  thinking*  about  my  new  job.  So  the 
next  morning  about  11  o'clock  I  saw  the  callboy  and 
he  called  me  for  a  double-header  engine  182  for  Plain- 
view,  Texas.  My  brother  happened  to  be  by  when  I 
was  called,  and  after  I  signed  the  book  he  began  to 
tell  me  how  to  play  the  game,  so  I  got  dinner  and  got 
my  things  and  pulled  for  the  roundhouse.  My  train 
was  already  made  up  and  engines  180  and  182  coupled 
together  in  the  yard.  I  climbed  up  in  the  cab  and 
there  was  a  very  nice  looking  gentleman  filling  the 
lubricator.  He  asked  me  my  name  and  I  told  him 
Whitaker,  and  I  asked  his.  He  said  George  Scurry. 
About  that  time  he  began  to  screw  his  plug  back  in 
the  lubricator  and  he  turned  the  steam  on  too  quick 
and  the  plug  flew  out  and  he  had  enough  lubricating 
oil  on  him  looked  like  to  fill  ten  more  just  like  that. 
He  was  very  mad,  as  he  had  been  promoted  to  a  Hog 
Head  the  day  before  and  he  had  bought  a  nice  new 
railroad  suit  and  it  was  awful  to  look  at.  He  looked 
straight  at  me  and  replied,  "Are  you  a  new  man  or  an 
old  head  h— 1?" 

"I  am  an  old  head." 

"What  road  are  you  off  of?" 

"The  L.  &  N/'  I  replied. 

"Good,"  he  said. 

So  at  1  p.  m.  sharp  the  two  Hog  Heads  coupled  our 
two  engines  onto  our  train  and  Scurry  and  I  got  sec- 
ond engine  onto  our  train.  The  conductor  counted 
his  cars  and  got  the  crew's  names  and  the  orders.  I 
stood  and  listened  to  them  read  these  just  as  if  I  knew 
what  they  meant,  but  I  did  not  know  anything  about 
what  they  were  reading,  as  my  brother  failed  to  tell 
me  anything  about  a  train  order  or  time    card.     So 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


63 


FESS  AND  LESS  WHITAKER 
When  railroading  in  Texas  1906-12 


64  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

when  everything  was  in  readiness  we  pulled  out. 
When  the  front  engineer  blew  highball  I  took  a  large 
red  handkerchief  out  of  my  pocket  and  tied  it  to  one 
side  of  my  cab  and  every  time  I  would  throw  in  a 
scoop  of  coal  I  would  pretend  to  wipe  the  sweat  off 
my  face  just  as  if  I  was  an  old  head.  When  I  started 
I  had  160  pounds  of  steam  and  when  we  went  through 
Zita  I  only  had  80  pounds,  only  a  distance  of  six  miles. 

Of  course,  I  knew  nothing  of  how  to  scatter  my 
coal  with  the  scoop  and  let  the  draft  place  it.  I  just 
put  it  in  at  the  door  and  very  soon  had  a  large  black 
place  in  my  fire,  and  after  we  got  past  Zita  he  looked 
at  the  steam  gauge  and  said,  "I  thought  you  was  an 
old  head." 

"Hell!  I  am  used  to  those  big  baffle  doors;  I  don't 
know  nothing  about  how  to  fire  this  little  cook  stove. 
If  you  will  show  me  I  will  burn  her  up  for  you."  I  said. 

"Get  up  here  on  my  seat,"  he  said,  "and  I  will  show 
you." 

So  he  got  down  and  took  his  scoop  and  scaled  his 
fire  and  told  me  to  look,  then  he  took  the  clinker  hook 
and  got  the  coal  all  scattered  and  picked  her  up  to  160 
pounds  again.  He  scaled  his  fire  the  second  time  and 
told  me  to  look,  then  he  showed  me  how  to  scatter  my 
coal  with  the  scoop  and  I  thanked  him,  and  by  that 
time  we  were  going  through  Hanny  Dawn  the  hill 
to  the  water  tank.  After  we  left  the  main  line  for 
Plainview,  102  miles,  I  held  my  engine  at  160  pounds 
and  when  we  got  to  Plainview  the  second  engine  was 
cut  out  for  a  switch  engine  to  load  cattle  and  we 
stayed  there  fifteen  days  and  I  showed  Scurry  that  I 
had  learned  to  be  a  good  fireman  on  those  class  of 
engines  by  that  time.     We  got  orders  on  the  fifteenth 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  65 

day  to  bring  what  loads  we  had  and  come  in,  so  the 
engine  could  be  washed  out,  and  when  I  got  in  I  got 
bumped  off  of  my  little  engine  and  the  next  day  I 
caught  one  of  them  big  kind,  and  as  soon  as  I  got  on 
the  engine  I  had  a  new  Hog  Head  and  I  told  him  just 
plainly  that  I  knew  nothing  about  how  to  fire  one  of 
those  big  battleships  and  if  he  would  show  me  I  would 
keep  the  putty  for  him.  I  told  him  I  was  used  to  the 
small  engines  and  he  told  me  to  wait  until  he  blew  the 
highball  out  of  Amarillo,  Texas,  for  Wellington, 
Kan.,  and  then  he  would  show  me,  and  he  did,  and  I 
kept  the  putty  at  220  pounds  and  had  seventy-six  cars 
of  sheep  and  cattle  tied  to  us.  Before  I  got  back  on 
that  trip  of  about  eight  days  I  was  getting  to  be  a 
pretty  good  fireman.  It  only  took  me  about  three 
months  until  I  held  a  regular  engine  and  was  signed 
to  a  big  compound  engine,  1186,  which  I  held  until  I 
was  promoted  to  an  engineer  in  May,  1910. 

On  one  trip  to  Cloris,  New  Mexico,  my  engineer 
laid  off  and  a  man  by  the  name  of  Brisley  was  signed 
to  my  engine  1186.  We  were  called  for  5  o'clock  that 
night,  so  I  was  on  time  and  reported  at  the  round- 
house and  went  on  and  got  my  engine  and  began  to 
clean  her  up.  In  about  forty  minutes  the  engineer 
came.  We  run  our  engine  out  of  the  roundhouse  on 
the  turntable  and  turned  her  for  the  west  end  and 
pulled  up  and  took  water  and  coal  and  soon  coupled 
onto  the  train.  The  engineer  blew  his  sign  to  test 
the  air  and  in  about  fifteen  minutes  two  car  knockers 
reported  the  air  O.  K.  and  sixty-seven  cars.  Pretty 
soon  the  conductor  came  over  with  the  orders  and 
read  them  and  he  also  had  a  slow  order  over  the 
bridge  west  of  Hanny  and  not  exceed  eight  miles  per 
hour.    About  that  time  I  noticed  my  clinker  hook  was 


66  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

gone,  so  I  had  to  go  back  to  the  roundhouse  to  get 
one,  and  after  I  got  my  clinker  hook  I  went  up  by  the 
caboose  to  let  the  conductor  know  I  got  one.  They 
was  about  ten  old  passenger  engineers  in  the  caboose 


The  author  when  firing  for  the  Sante  Fe  R.  R.  and  Engineer  Brisley 

dead-heading  to  Cloris  to  take  the  examination  on  air 
and  pumps,  as  the  air  car  and  instructor  was  at  Cloris. 
So  when  I  got  on  the  engine  I  told  Brisley  that  we 
had  a  caboose  full  of  old  hog  heads  or  engineers  dead- 
heading to  Cloris.  He  said:  "I'll  show  them  dam 
rascals  how  to  run  an  engine." 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  67 

My  engineer  began  to  tell  me  that  the  Brotherhood 
of  Locomotive  Firemen  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Loco- 
motive Engineers  were  having  trouble  over  him.  He 
went  on  to  say  that  while  he  was  firing  he  joined  the 
firemen's  brotherhood  and  after  he  had  been  promoted 
to  an  engineer  that  the  engineers  wanted  him  to  drop 
out  of  the  firemen's  brotherhood  and  join  the  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engineers  and  he  had  refused 
and  the  engineers  were  knocking  on  him.  He  had 
been  married  and  one  of  the  brakemen  had  stolen 
Brisley's  wife  and  ran  away  with  her,  and  I  was  told 
later  that  Brisley  had  a  real  fine  looking  wife  and  he 
was  grieving  very  much  and  had  took  to  drinking. 
So  he  was  mad,  drinking  and  in  trouble  and  102  miles 
in  front  of  him,  and  so  he  called  for  a  highball  from 
the  rear  and  received  it  and  I  will  say  he  sure  did  blow 
a  highball  that  time.  As  we  went  through  Zita  we 
were  making  sixty-one  miles  per  hour  and  only  seven 
miles  to  Hanny,  where  they  always  shut  the  throttle 
off  and  hook  up  his  Johnson  bar.  When  we  hit  the 
switch  at  Hanny  I  noticed  Brisley  dropped  his  John- 
son bar  two  notches  and  pulled  his  throttle  out  some 
more  and  he  had  my  fire  just  dancing  on  the  grate. 
I  thought  he  was  getting  ready  to  shut  the  engine  off, 
as  there  was  a  very  large  mountain  at  the  west  end  of 
the  Hanny  switch  where  they  always  shut  off  their 
engines  and  every  once  and  a  while  take  off  five  and 
six  pounds  of  air.  So  it  was  only  about  three  miles 
to  the  bridge  to  where  we  had  the  slow  orders'  so 
when  we  passed  over  the  hill  at  Hanny  he  did  not  shut 
the  engine  off.  I  jumped  down  and  went  to  throw  in 
a  scoop  of  coal.  About  that  time  we  hit  a  steep  curve 
to  the  left  and  the  coal  went  in  the  engineer's  lap 
instead  of  the  boiler.    He  was  running  so  fast  and  so 


68  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

many  stiff  curves  that  I  first  threw  the  coal  in  the 
fireman's  seat  and  then  the  engineer's  lap  and  he  said, 
''Damn  it!  throw  it  in  the  boiler,  not  in  my  lap."  I 
growled  at  him  and  told  him  to  shut  her  off  and  put 
on  the  air,  and  he  said  no,  that  he  was  showing  the 
Hog  Heads  in  the  caboose  how  to  run  an  engine.  I 
knew  in  another  moment  we  would  be  dead  and  I  sure 
began  to  get  ready  to  die.  By  this  time  my  lights 
were  all  shook  out  of  the  racks  and  my  clinker  hook 
and  shaker  bar  had  done  fell  out  of  the  racks.  I 
climbed  up  and  got  on  my  seat  and  fastened  my  arms 
in  the  little  windows  and  tried  to  hold  myself  on  the 
seat,  expecting  to  die  any  moment.  About  this  time 
we  had  hit  the  bridge  and  just  as  the  engine  hit  the 
bridge  she  jumped  up  about  three  inches  and  by  good 
luck  when  the  engine  came  down  it  hit  the  rails  all 
O.  K.  and  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  there  was  a  water 
tank  and  we  were  compelled  to  take  water,  so  on 
account  of  the  rate  of  speed  she  was  running  she  run 
ahead  of  the  water  tank  about  one-half  a  mile,  and 
just  as  he  got  her  stopped  before  he  could  reverse  her 
those  ten  Hog  Heads  come  out  of  the  caboose  just 
like  they  had  been  shot  out  a  14-inch  gun.  And  after 
he  got  her  reversed  he  backed  up  to  the  water  tank 
and  took  water  and  after  he  got  water  I  simply  told 
Brisley  I  was  not  afraid,  but  I  did  not  want  to  be 
killed  by  a  fool  and  refused  to  go,  so  he  set  in  to  beg 
me  to  go  and  I  could  see  every  inch  of  the  road  in  my 
mind,  and  from  there  on  it  was  uphill  and  I  knew  he 
could  not  run  any  more.  Not  thinking  of  coining 
back,  I  agreed  to  go  on,  so  we  pulled  out  and  reached 
Texico  about  11:50  p.  m.  There  he  got  one  pint  of 
whisky  and  we  pulled  on  over  into  Cloris  and  cut  off 
from  our  train  and  put  our  engine  away,  washed  up 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


69 


and  went  to  bed.  We  should  have  been  called  at  10 
a.  m.  next  morning,  but  the  callboy  could  not  find  us, 
so  we  were  called  for  2  p.  m.  We  got  on  our  engine 
and  the  head  brakeman  took  us  over  to  the  stock  pens 
and  picked  up  four  cars  of  sheep  and  took  us  back  in 
the  yard  to  No.  7  track  and  coupled  us  up  to  forty- 
seven  more  cars  of  sheep  and  cattle,  and  Smyers, 
trainmaster  for  the  A.,  T.  &  S.  F.,  came  up  to  our 
engine  and  said  to  Brisley:  "Brisley'  you  have  been 
reported  up  three  times  for  fast  running  and  I  don't 
want  to  hear  of  it  any  more,  but  I  want  those  cattle 
and  sheep  in  Canadian,  Texas,  before  the  dog  law 
gets  you." 

He  could  run  without  the  trainmaster  giving  him 
yny  hints,  and  I  began  to  get  scared,  for  I  knew  it 
was  all  down  hill  from  Cloris,  N.  M.,  to  Canadian, 
Texas,  except  two  hills  which  we  had  to  go  up. 

So  we  received  our  orders  and  pulled  out.  After  we 
left  Texico  I  don't  remember  very  much  what  hap- 
pened. He  was  running  so  fast  I  could  not  think,  as 
he  was  running  faster  than  I  could  think.  Every  town 
on  that  road  of  three  hundred  and  nine  miles  was 
cleaned  of  all  the  dust.  What  he  did  not  blow  out  he 
sucked  out  with  the  speed  of  our  train.  After  I  got 
over  the  awful  scare  I  noticed  everybody  sure  did 
sidetrack  for  him,  and  just  as  we  called  for  the  Cana- 
dian station  he  ran  over  a  flag  and  through  a  train, 
splitting  six  cars  of  sheep  and  one  car  of  cattle  square 
in  two.  There  were  sheep  in  every  man's  house,  lot 
and  yard  in  Canadian,  but  by  good  luck  our  engine 
run  out  in  the  sand  and  turned  over  and  neither  one 
of  us  hurt.  So  Brisley  got  his  walking  papers  and  the 
last  time  I  heard  from  him  he  was  in  Mexico  working 
for  the  Mexican  Central  Railroad. 


70  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

I  was  promoted  to  an  engineer  in  1910,  which  job 
T  held  until  I  resigned,  November,  1911.  I  then 
returned  to  Kentucky  and  went  in  the  mercantile 
business  at  Goard'  and  during  the  building  of  the  L. 
&  N.  Railroad  from  Jackson,  Ky.,  to  McRoberts,  Ky., 
and  after  the  road  was  put  through  I  sold  out  my 
mercantile  business  and  went  to  Lexington  to  get  a 
job.  The  business  was  very  dull  and  the  company  did 
not  need  any  engineers  and  Mr.  Kishhammer,  the 
trainmaster,  gave  me  a  job  as  brakeman,  Lexington 
to  McRoberts.  I  gave  my  whole  attention  to  the 
company's  business,  and  any  time  I  was  asked  about 
anything  I  could  tell  it  and  after  braking  nine  months 
I  was  taken  off  the  road  and  made  depot,  freight, 
ticket  and  express  agent  and  operator  at  Blackey,  Ky., 
which  job  I  held  for  three  years,  when  I  resigned  to 
run  for  Circuit  Court  Clerk. 

I  ran  against  two  large  generations  of  people,  S.  P. 
Combs,  who  was  the  Circuit  Court  Clerk  at  that  time 
and  who  understood  tricks  in  an  election,  and  my 
other  opponent  was  G.  B.  Adams,  a  young  lawyer  and 
a  Regular  Baptist  preacher.  Not  knowing  anything 
about  politics,  I  was  defeated  by  thirty-six  votes. 
There  were  eleven  voting  precincts  and  I  carried  nine 
of  them. 

After  the  election  in  1915  I  went  to  work  for  Mr. 
D.  S.  Dudley,  president  of  the  Kentucky  River  Coal 
Corporation.  I  bought  all  of  the  land  on  Rockhouse 
and  Caudill's  Branch  for  him  and  helped  to  lease  the 
No.  4  coal  for  him,  and  they  have  one  big  lease  at  the 
mouth  of  Rockhouse  known  as  the  Rockhouse  Coal 
Company,  owned  by  three  real  fine  men,  Mr.  Mc- 
Clanahan,  of  Charleston,  W.Va.,  one  of  the  nicest  men 
I  ever  met  as  a  business  man,  and  the  other  two  are 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


71 


72 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


just  fine  big  business  men,  Wallbolt  and  Arthur,  of 
Toledo,  O.  Next  comes  the  Marion  Coal  Company, 
at  the  mouth  of  Caudill's  Branch.  The  managers  are 
old  big,  fat,  happy-go-lucky  men,  John  Gorman,  of 
Hazard,  and  William  Morrison,  of  Jellico,  who  are 
splendid  gentlemen.  With  the  coal  experience  then 
comes  the  Caudill  Branch  Coal  Company  on  the  head 
of  Caudill  Branch;  same  stockholders  as  the  Rock- 
house  Coal  Company.  All  of  this  lies  in  two  miles 
and  a  half  of  Blackey,  Ky.,  and  the  new  L.  &  N. 
branch  comes  in  at  Blackey. 

Blackey  has  one  of  the  best  colleges  in  the  State  of 
Kentucky.  It  is  managed  by  Prof.  E.  V.  Tadlock. 
The  college  was  built  by  Dr.  Gurant,  of  Wilmore, 
Ky.,  and  the  land  was  donated  by  Jeff  Ison.  Blackey 
has  one  large  coal  operation  going  on  now.  The  man- 
agers are  a  bunch  of  real  nice  gentlemen  with  experi- 
ence and  are  P.  J.  Cross  and  J.  P.  Jones. 

The  next  big  coal  company  is  on  Smoot  Creek. 
The  first  company  is  known  as  the  Smoot  Creek  Coal 
Company,  managed  by  one  of  the  Knoxville,  Tenn., 
big-hearted  fellows,  who  has  an  open  hand  for  every- 
body, a  nice  big  smile  and  who  has  written  some 
excellent  lectures  for  Tennessee,  Mr.  C.  P.  Price. 
Next  are  the  West  Virginia  and  Kentucky  Coal  Com- 
pany, managed  by  two  brothers  of  Virginia  with  that 
good,  clear,  good-hearted  disposition.  Harry  is  a 
whole-souled  man.  If  you  were  broke  and  he  had  a 
dime  he  would  give  you  a  nickel  of  it.  The  other 
brother,  T.  P.,  has  that  good  old  fighting  look  on,  and 
he  put  in  his  part  in  the  Spanish-American  War. 
Next  are  the  Amburgey  Coal  Company,  managed  by 
two  of   the  real   Kentucky   blood,  Mr.  Mathews  and 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


73 


llllllPllflW  :"W  ''■■■-.  ':? : 


iliilllll 


mm 


ifiiii 


HON.  W.  S.  DUDLEY 
President  Kentucky  River  Coal  Corporation 


^ History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Mr.  McCluren,  of  Coving-ton,  Ky.  Mack  is  just  a 
dandy  only  he  gets  his  politics  mixed  up.  All  three 
of  the  coal  companies  on  Smoot  Creek  are  working. 
The  Amburgey  seam,  which  is  about  eight  feet  with- 
out a  parting.  Rockhouse  companies  are  working 
that  good  old  No.  4  seam,  56  inches  coal,  4  inches 
parting  and  11  inches  coal. 

After  this  was  all  done  I  resigned  from  the  Ken- 
tucky River  Coal  Corporation  and  announced  myself 
as  a  candidate  for  Jailer  of  Letcher  County,  subject 
to  the  action  of  the  Republican  party,  August  4,  1917. 
There  were  already  fifteen  candidates  on  the  track 
for  Jailer  and  I  made  the  sixteenth  man.  We  all  met 
at  Whitesburg  to  draw  to  see  who  come  first  on  the 
ballot  and  I  told  them  all  if  I  drew  number  seven 
they  just  as  well  quit,  so  we  all  drew  and  by  good  luck 
I  got  my  old  lucky  number  seven.  I  set  out  campaign- 
ing and  made  a  speech  on  Line  Fork,  then  I  started 
for  the  coal  fields.  I  first  spoke  at  Kona,  next  at  Seco, 
both  on  Sunday,  and  I  met  one  real  nice  gentleman 
who  was  manager  of  the  Southeast  Coal  Company, 
Mr.  Pfenning,  who  was  and  is  operating  the  late 
Wright's  coal  I  wrote  about  in  the  beginning,  Seco 
is  a  real  nice  little  city.  No  colored  people  nor  for- 
eign people  are  allowed  there.  Next  was  at  Fleming, 
Ky.  I  had  a  big  crowd.  Lots  of  other  candidates  were 
there  and  everybody  spoke.  During  my  speaking 
judge  Day  was  setting  upstairs  in  the  hotel  with  the 
manager  of  the  Elkhorn  Coal  Company.  After  I  had 
carried  Dick  of!  in  a  trance  he  whispered  to  Judge 
Day,  "Lest  just  elect  that  d — n  fool,"  and  after  the 
votes  were  cried  at  Fleming  I  had  received  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  votes  out  of  two  hundred  and 
thirty-five.  Mr.  Coal  is  a  clean-hearted  gentleman  and 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  76 

stands  by  his  men  and  his  county.  He  is  liked  by 
everybody.  My  next  speaking  was  at  Haymen.  I 
spoke  to  the  colored  people.  There  were  about  four 
hundred  of  them  and  we  had  prepared  a  real  good 
supper  for  them.  Had  a  fine  barrel  of  beer  and  had 
some  good  speakers,  Congressman  John  W.  Langley, 
Commonwealth  Attorney  R.  Monroe  Fields,  Mr. 
Noah  Bentley,  of  Jenkins,  and  others.  I  was  late  get- 
ting in.  I  reached  Haymen  about  11  p.  m.  and  the 
crowd  was  coming  out.  Some  run  in  and  told  them 
I  had  come.  So  the  bell  was  rung  and  everybody  went 
back  in  and  I  had  to  make  a  different  speech  if  I  got 
the  crowd  stirred  up.  So  there  was  a  big  Negro  with  a 
palm  beach  suit  got  up  and  introduced  me.  I  says: 
"Gentlemen,  I  am  real  glad  to  be  with  you  tonight, 
but  sorry  that  I. am  late,  but  I  want  to  say  to  you  col- 
ored brothers  I  am  your  Jailer  for  the  next  four  years 
and  I  am  going  to  be  the  Jailer.  Nobody  is  going  to 
tell  me  how  to  run  my  jail.  Instead  of  making  prison- 
ers out  of  you  I  am  going  to  make  Christians,"  and 
everybody  said  "Amen"  and  shouted.  I  am  going  for 
everybody  to  read  the  Bible.  "Amen,"  they  shouted 
again,  and  if  they  don't  by  G — d,  I  will  make  them 
read  it.  "Amen,"  and  great  cheers  went  up.  All  the 
negroes  and  speakers  began  to  look  at  me  and  I  told 
them  I  was  going  to  put  the  colored  men  in  the  col- 
ored department  and  the  white  men  in  the  white 
department.  I  was  talking  to  a  gentleman  the  other 
day,  your  Commonwealth  Attorney,  R.  Monroe 
Fields,  the  way  I  was  going  to  handle  my  prisoners, 
and  he  said,  "Fess,  that  won't  do;  Bill  Hall  tried  that 
and  he  let  some  bad  negroes  get  out  of  the  negro  de- 
partment." Gentlemen,  I  mean  what  I  say;  if  the  jail 
won't  hold  them  in  by  G — d,  let  the  county  build  a  jail 


76  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


HON.  JNO.  W.  LANGLEY 
The  author's  political  friend 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


LETCHER  COUNTY  JAIL,  BUILT  1908 


78  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

that  will  hold  them  in.  Everybody  shouted  amen  to 
that  and  yelled  "Fess  for  Jailer."  I  bluffed  off  six  of 
my  opponents  that  night.  Next  we  all  were  billed  for 
Hemp  Hill,  another  regular  negro  speaking  night. 
We  had  about  six  hundred  negroes  out  and  so  I  had 
to  wait  until  friy  turn  came  as  all  of  the  speakers  had 
to  speak.  My  turn  came  about  1 :30.  Everybody  had 
heard  of  me  and  they  were  all  waiting  for  my  time, 
so  I  set  with  patience,  and  just  as  I  got  up  I  looked 
over  the  crowd  and  believe  me  there  were  about  four 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

hundred  negroes  assembled.  Something  run  all  over 
me.  Something  said,  "Fess,  wake  them  up,"  and  I 
started  pounding  it  to  them  like  Billie  Sunday  preach- 
ing. I  saw  that  I  had  them  going  my  way  and  finally 
I  walked  off  of  the  stage  and  down  the  aisle  to 
where  an  old  gray-headed  man  who  had  served  in 
slavery  time.  I  began  to  pat  his  head  kindly,  hugged 
him  up  and  told  him  what  our  dear  old  friend  Lincoln 
had  done  and  I  told  them  that  Lincoln  was  a  man  of 
nature;  he  had  picked  his  education  from  the  moon 
and  the  stars  and  little  rippling  streams.  His  ambition 
was  to  be  elected  President  of  the  United  States  so  he 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  79 

could  free  the  slaves  of  witches.  He  was,  and  he 
released  the  shackles  from  four  million  slaves  by  this 
time.  I  had  them  going  my  way  then  and  I  took  the 
3^ounger  class  and  began  to  tell  them  what  the  Ninth 
and  Tenth  Cavalry  and  Twenty-fourth  and  Twenty- 
fifth  Infantry  done  in  1898  in  Cuba  when  Roosevelt 
and  I  had  made  such  a  fight  and  that  old  Ninth  and 
Tenth  Cavalry  cut  the  wire  fence  and  let  Col.  Roose- 
velt through  the  fence  and  up  the  hill  with  his  rough 
riders  and  the  old  Ninth  and  Tenth  Cavalry  cutting 
their  heads  off  with  sabers,  and  there  were  twentv- 
four  pieces  in  the  Twenty-fourth  Infantry  that  played 
the  band  that  won  the  United  States  a  great  battle. 
After  we  had  planted  Old  Glory  on  top  of  the  little 
log  house  there  were  only  two  men  left  in  the  band; 
one  was  lying  on  the  ground  with  a  leg  broke  playing 
"Marching  Through  Georgia,"  and  the  other  had  his 
left  arm  off  and  was  playing  "Yankee  Doodle."  By 
this  time  I  had  the  crowd  shouting  and  hollering. 
If  a  man  had  ever  stirred  up  a  crowd  I  had. 

I  and  Miss  Martha  Jane  Potter  were  both  to  speak 
at  Jenkins  and  the  auditorium  was  running  over,  full 
of  white  people  and  negroes,  and  they  had  a  splendid 
band.  I  took  Jenkins  with  a  storm,  and  after  Miss 
Potter,  daughter  of  Henry  Potter,  the  coal  magnate 
of  Letcher  County,  delivered  her  speech'  I  was  next 
introduced  by  Professor  Greer.  I  told  them  in  a  very 
funny  way  that  I  had  to  peal  to  Jenkins  very  hard 
because  she  had  the  votes  at  Dunham,  Burdine  and 
Jenkins  proper,  and  that  I  had  none  at  home  because 
I  lived  in  the  only  Democratic  precinct  in  the  county 
and  that  I  had  five  brothers,  forty-three  uncles,  two 
hundred  and  seventy-one  first  cousins,  and  Jeff  Ison, 
my  father-in-law,  and  all  were  Democrats  and  I  was 


80 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


the  only  Republican,  so  of  course  you  will  all  want 
to  know  how  come  me  to  be  such  a  strong  Repub- 
lican, so  I  will  tell  you.  My  father  died  when  I  was 
very  small  and  left  my  mother  with  a  house  full  of 
little  orphan  children  and  no  money.  Mother  had  two 
old  milk  cows  named  Blackey  and  Whitey,  and  every 
year  prior  to  Cleveland's  administration  she  would 
sell  the  two  little  calves  off  of  the  cows  and  buy  all 
of  us  boys  a  pair  of  brass-toed  shoes,  but  "God  bless 
your  soul"  during  Cleveland's  administration  they 
failed  to  have  any  calves  and  we  all  had  to  go  bare- 
footed, so  I  have  been  a  Republican  ever  since. 

After  the  speaking  I  met  some  of  the  nicest  gentle- 
men I  believe  I  ever  met,  such  as  Mr.  Dunlap,  John- 
son, Kegon  and  the  general  manager  of  the  Consoli- 
dation Coal  Company,  Mr.  Gellete,  and  the  right  arm 
of  the  B.  &  O.  Railroad  were  on  the  ground  making 
a  hard  fight  for  me.  Mr.  McLaughlin  will  never  be 
forgotten  by  me.  I  also  had  sixty-three  traveling 
men  between  Jenkins  and  Cincinnati  that  were  doing 
all  they  could  for  me.  They  had  tried  me  at  Blackey 
for  agent  for  three  years  and  I  had  a  regular  travel- 
ing men's  meeting  at  the  Whitesburg  Hotel  and  I 
made  a  strong  promise  to  them:  "Gentlemen,  if  you 
will  stand  by  me  and  should  one  of  you  get  in  jail  I 
will  treat  you  nice  and  give  you  three  good  square 
meals  per  day  and  when  your  time  is  up  I  will  turn 
you  out,"  so  they  stood,  and  when  you  get  the  travel- 
ing men  for  you  I  will  say  you  have  won,  and  I  won 
it  by  the  biggest  majority  any  man  ever  was  elected, 
five  hundred  and  six,  over  Sol  Wright,  of  McRoberts. 
I  received  more  votes  than  any  man  ever  did.  There 
were  eighteen  voting    precincts  in  the  county  and  I 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  81 

carried  seventeen  of  them  and  lost  the  other  one  by- 
one  vote  and  I  received  six  votes  more  than  all  of  my 
ten  opponents  together. 

I  am  now  the  Jailer  of  Letcher  County  and  have 
thirty-two  prisoners  in  jail.  I  have  Sunday-school 
every  Sunday  in  my  jail  and  preaching  twice  per 
month;  had  four  conversions  and  they  told  some  great 
experiences.  I  have  had  my  living  and  prisoner 
department  cells  painted  and  water  works  put  in  and 
I  challenged  the  State  of  Kentucky  Jailers  to  cleanli- 
ness, and  everybody  has  got  to  take  their  hat  off  to 
my  Courthouse  Square.  I  am  now  having  moonlight 
schools  in  my  jail  and  I  have  turned  out  three  young 
men  who  did  not  know  a  letter  in  the  book,  can  write, 
read  and  spell. 

I  am  sure  the  Jailers  of  Kentucky  can  do  some  great 
work  in  the  moonlight  schools,  and  as  we  handle  the 
toughs  and  the  uneducated  and  after  we  can  teach  a 
man  to  read  he  can  read  where  many  a  man  has  made 
a  mistake.  The  people  have  been  so  nice  to  so  many 
Jailers.  About  one  hundred  and  twenty  jails  in  Ken- 
tucky, so  lets  us  promise  the  people  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  counties  that  we  will  do  something  good 
for  some  poor  boy  or  girl.  My  jail  is  a  nice  stone 
building  with  four  bedrooms,  dining  and  cook  room, 
woman  department,  a  nice  dining-room  for  the  pris- 
oners and  only  one  prisoner  department  for  white  and 
colored  together,  as  the  colored  department  was 
destroyed  before  I  got  in  charge  of  the  jail. 

Letcher  County  can  brag  on  three  things  that  the 
whole  United  States  and  world  can't  beat.  First,  she 
has  the  name  of  raising  the  largest  man  in  the  world, 
Martin  Van  Buren  Bates,  better    known  as  Brother 


82  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Bates.  He  was  born  twelve  miles  above  Whitesburg 
at  the  mouth  of  Boone  Fork,  where  Daniel  Boone  first 
settled.  The  property  is  now  owned  by  Henry  Pot- 
ter. When  Brother  Bates  was  seventeen  years  old  he 
fought  side  by  side  with  bad  John  Wright  in  the 
cavalry.  The  first  battle  they  were  in  was  fought  on 
Licking  River  near  Salyersville,  Ky.  Brother  Bates 
rode  a  big  white  horse  give  up  to  be  the  whitest  horse 
in  the  Civil  War.  After  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
Brother  Bates  come  back  and  lived  with  his  father, 
John  W.  Bates,  at  the  mouth  of  Boone. 

Brother  Bates'  father  came  from  Washington 
County,  Va.  At  the  age  of  twenty-four  Brother  Bates 
weighed  four  hundred  and  eighty-five  pounds  and 
stood  seven  feet  and  four  inches  tall,  and  one  of  his 
boots,  number  23,  held  one-half  bushel  of  shelled  corn. 
He  joined  a  circus  when  he  was  twenty-eight  years 
old  and  traveled  all  over  the  world.  He  got  married 
in  Canada  and  on  one  of  his  trips  while  in  England 
the  King  and  the  Queen  presented  each  one  of  them 
a  fine  watch.  The  watches  were  about  the  size  of  a 
saucer.  Brother  Bates  has  retired  from  the  circus 
business  and  is  a  well-to-do  farmer  at  Seville,  Ohio. 
His  wife  weighed  five  pounds  more  than  he  did. 
They  had  one  child  born  to  them  and  it  weighed 
twenty  pounds  at  its  birth  and  died  seasick  crossing 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Brother  Bates  is  eighty-one 
years  old  now  and  has  only  one  brother  living,  Rob- 
ert Bates  (better  known  as  Old  Rob),  who  lives  on 
the  head  of  Rockhouse.  He  is  the  richest  man  in 
Letcher  County  and  Knott  County.  He  is  worth 
over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  He  was  ninety- 
three  years  old  August  5,  1918.  Uncle  Rob  is  the 
oldest  champion  daddy  at  ninety-three.    His  oldest 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  83 

child  is  fifty-seven  and  youngest  seven.  Uncle  Rob 
has  twenty-four  children.  His  descendants  are  well 
over  a  hundred.  Some  say  that  there  are  many  great- 
grandchildren alone-  not  counting  the  grandchildren 
of  the  great-grandchildren,  of  whom  there  are  at  least 
ten.  Uncle  Rob  confesses  that  he  can't  count  his 
flock.  Outside  his  children  he  has  thirteen  children 
at  home  yet.  The  other  eleven  are  married  and  their 
families  are  scattered.  Uncle  Rob  has  been  married 
twice.  At  home  this  remarkable  Kentucky  father  is 
still  the  unquestioned  master.  His  politics  are  the 
household's.  He  lives  by  rule  and  by  rule  he  governs. 
It  don't  pay  to  pamper  youngsters.  Bring  children  up 
to  respect  you  and  they  will  respect  themselves. 
Children  have  got  to  be  taught  to  save.  A  good  wife 
is  the  best  of  all;  a  man  can't  get  ahead  without  her. 
Women  should  help  their  husbands. 

Children  are  seldom  sick  in  the  mountains  and 
Uncle  Rob  says  give  them  a  dose  of  sassafras  tea  is 
medicine  enough.  Uncle  Rob  has  not  been  sick  a  day 
in  his  life.  He  is  five  feet  and  eight  inches  tall  and 
weighs  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds.  He  stands 
straight  and  walks  with  splendor.  He  has  the  shoul- 
ders and  chest  of  a  perfect  built  man.  He  does  not 
smoke  or  drink.  Uncle  Rob  says  he  has  gone  hungry 
many  a  time  to  save  a  quarter  and  has  never  been 
sorry  of  it.  One  would  expect  a  man  who  owns  most 
of  the  mountains  in  his  section  and  who  is  worth  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  live  in  a  fine  house,  but 
Uncle  Rob  prefers  the  old  house  and  bare  floors  like 
the  old  schoolhouse  on  Burton  Hill. 

The  house  which  Uncle  Rob  lives  in  has  been  built 
seventy-eight  years  at  the  writing  of  this  book.  Uncle 


84  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Rob  is  on  his  way  to  Mount  Sterling  with  a  drove  of 
cattle,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  miles,  horseback. 
Uncle  Rob  never  did  have  a  suit  of  underwear  on  and 
never  did  wear  a  collar  and  very  fine  socks.  His  wife 
makes  his  socks  and  shirts. 

The  seconci  thing  Letcher  County  can  brag  about 
is  a  real  mountain  dog  raised  by  Henry  Mullins  on 
the  head  of  Cumberland.  The  dog  was  as  large  as  a 
real  mountain  cow.  He  was  sold  to  Sells  Brothers' 
show,  Big  Stone  Gap,  Va.,  in  1880  for  seven  hundred 
dollars.  He  was  taken  all  over  the  world  and  won  the 
champion  medal,  king  of  all  dogs. 

The  third  was  a  real  pumpkin  raised  by  old  Jim 
Hogg  of  all  at  the  mouth  of  Tolson  Creek.  The 
pumpkin  weighed  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  pounds. 
After  cutting  both  ends  off  any  ordinary  man  could 
crawl  through  it. 

One  of  the  most  peculiar  men  ever  Letcher  County 
had  was  old  fighting  George  Ison,  on  Line  Fork, 
whom  we  wrote  about  in  the  first  of  the  book.  In  the 
time  of  the  Civil  War  the  Yankees  had  stolen  all  of 
Uncle  George's  horses  and  cattle  except  one  old  black 
and  white  pided  cow.  When  spring  came  he  would 
have  one  of  his  negroes,  named  Wesley,  to  plow  the 
old  cow  and  cultivate  the  land.  He  would  put  one- 
half  yoke  on  the  old  cow  and  a  home-made  plow  stock 
and  plow  from  one-half  of  an  acre  to  one  acre  per 
day.  He  would  milk  his  old  cow  every  morning  and 
evening  and  make  the  gravy  for  his  slaves. 

He  stayed  full  of  moonshine  whisky  very  near  all 
of  the  time  after  he  lost  his  first  wife.  He  left  Line 
Fork  to  go  courting  above  Whitesburg  to  see  Aunt 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  85 

Vina  Adams.  He  had  a  brinnal  cow  bringing  to 
Whitesburg  to  be  shot  for  and  the  old  cow  would  not 
lead  very  well  and  he  wanted  to  get  up  to  Aunt  Vina's 
home  before  dark,  so  he  tied  his  cow  to  his  old  horse's 
tail  and  put  the  spur  to  his  old  horse,  which  was  well 
known  in  Letcher  County  by  the  name  of  Blue  Jack, 
and  just  as  he  crossed  the  river  at  Whitesburg  the  old 
cow  got  stuck  up  in  the  quicksand,  and  the  old  man, 
feeling  so  good  and  his  mind  on  his  "sweetheart," 
then  about  fifty  years  old;  he  looked  back  to  see  his 
cow  about  the  time  he  hit  the  main  street  of  Whites- 
burg and  he  noticed  that  his  cow  was  gone  and  also 
old  "Blue  Jack"  had  lost  his  tail  completely. 

He  got  James  H.  Frazier  to  look  after  his  cow  and 
he  got  one  quart  as  he  went  through  Whitesburg  and 
went  on  to  see  Aunt  Vina.  The  next  day  he  came 
back  to  Whitesburg  and  some  man  had  heard  of  him 
being  such  a  fighter  and  told  him  that  he  had  come 
over  two  hundred  miles  to  fight  him.  So  he  got  down 
off  of  "Blue  Jack"  and  in  about  fifty  minutes  old  man 
Ison  had  him  well  whipped.  That  was  the  biggest 
fist  and  scull  fight  that  was  ever  fought  in  the 
mountains  of  Kentucky.  After  the  fight  was  all  over 
old  man  Ison  set  his  opponent  up  a  glass  of  good 
apple  brandy  and  they  drank  friendly  and  shook  hands 
and  parted. 

Old  man  Ison  and  Gudson  Ingram,  both  of  Line 
Fork,  two  large,  strong  men,  uneducated,  and  when 
Letcher  County  was  cut  off  of  Perry  County,  Letcher 
County  had  to  have  a  jail  house,  so  the  contract  was 
'let  to  be  built  twenty  by  thirty,  and  those  two  big 
strong  men  took  the  contract  to  deliver  all  of  the  win- 
dows and  doors    and   iron    fixtures.     There  were  no 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

roads,  no  teams  hardly  and  a  very  few  wagons,  so 
they  carried  all  of  the  iron  on  their  backs  from  Lex- 
ington. They  walked  every  step  over  the  mountains 
and  every  step  each  way.  They  made  three  trips  in 
one  month  from  Whitesburg  to  Lexington  and  re- 
turned and  only  got  thirty-seven  dollars  for  the  whole 
job.  They  averaged  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds 
apiece  per  load.  On  the  first  trip  to  Lexington  they 
enjoyed  theirselves  fine  and  everybody  that  saw  them 
enjoyed  themselves.  They  was  the  pure  typical 
mountain  type;  wore  home-made  shoes,  called  moc- 
casins, old  jeans  pants  and  coat  made  by  their  wives 
on  the  old-fashioned  looms,  and  flax  shirts. 

Letcher  County  boasts  of  having  the  pure  Anglo- 
vSaxon  language  and  the  pure  typical  mountain  form 
and  ways  of  life  and  the  people  of  Letcher  County 
through  its  scientific  management  is  at  the  root  of 
successful  present  enterprise  and  intelligence  in  not 
only  the  lives  of  bygone  men  and  women  but  youths 
are  looking  for  a  foremost  day. 

I  will  try  and  describe  one  of  the  most  peculiar  men 
that  was  ever  raised  in  the  mountains,  Elisha  Ingram. 
Elisha  Ingram  was  born  at  the  mouth  of  Kingdom 
Come  Creek  in  the  year  of  1865.  When  a  boy  he  was 
a  peculiar  turned  boy.  When  he  was  about  twenty 
years  old  he  could  eat  more  than  ten  men.  He  wore 
number  thirteen  shoes.  He  lived  in  the  woods  most 
of  his  time  and  was  reported  one  time  to  the  revenue 
people  to  be  a  moonshiner  and  there  were  seven  mar- 
shals who  came  from  down  in  the  State  and  made  the 
raid.  He  hid  in  one  of  those  big  caves  in  the  head  of 
Line  Fork.  The  marshals  went  in  the  cave  at  8  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  came  out  about  2  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  with  Mr.  Ingram. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


87 


They  found  that  he  was  not  a  moonshiner,  but  a 
merchant  or  a  hardware  man.  When  they  came  out 
they  brought  twenty-three  big  guns  and  thirty-one 
trunks  full  of  old  rags.  Mr.  Ingram  has  been  seen 
with  as  many  as  three  trunks  on  his  back  at  the  same 
time,  bringing  them  across  the  big  Black  Mountains 
and  taking  them  to  his  cave  or  store,  as  it  may  be 
called,  in  the  top  of  the  Cumberland  Mountain,  which 
is  one  of  the  world's  great  sceneries,  as  well  as  the 
Mammoth  Cave  down  in  the  State. 

During  the  Civil  War  in  the  year  of  1864  Daw 
Adams,  who  preached  on  Burton  Hill,  was  making 
his  way  through  the  mountains  from  his  home,  three 
miles  above  Whitesburg,  the  county  seat  of  Letcher 
County.  He  stopped  over  night  on  the  head  of  Kings 
Creek  and  stayed  with  Mr.  D.  D.  Fields,  now  one  of 
the  best  known  lawyers  in  the  mountains  of  Ken- 
tucky. Mr.  Adams  had  a  real  bench-legged  dog  and 
Mr.  Fields  wanted  the  dog  and  so  Mr.  Adams  gave 
him  the  dog.  The  dog's  name  was  Swad  Dink.  Mr. 
Adams  never  told  Mr.  Fields  that  there  was  anything 
peculiar  about  this  dog.  So  Mr.  Fields  was  well 
pleased  over  his  dog  and  the  next  morning  Mr.  Fields 
wanted  to  try  his  dog  and  so  he  set  him  on  a  hog,  and 
instead  of  the  dog  going  forwards  and  running  the 
hog  he  ran  it  backwards  by  turning  the  other  end. 
Time  makes  changes,  so  Mr.  Fields  is  now  the  son- 
in-law  of  Mr.  Adams  and  has  one  pretty  little  girl 
named  Danola. 

There  has  been  some  great  men  and  women  raised 
in  Letcher  County  and  they  have  been  some  very, 
very  strange  people  raised  in  Letcher  County  and 
some  very  bad  men  and  done  some  awful  crimes,  but 


88  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

what  more  could  be  expected  of  some  people  who  have 
had  such  a  poor  chance  as  men  and  women  born  in  the 
mountains  of  Kentucky.  There  has  been  lots  said 
and  wrote  about  Letcher  County  and  its  people  that 
is  not  true.  The  moonshiners  have  given  dear  old 
Letcher  a  black  eye,  but  thank  God  that  day  has 
passed. 

Old  Letcher  stands  first  in  wealth.  If  the  whole 
united  world  would  shut  down  all  of  their  coal  mines 
Letcher  County  could  furnish  the  whole  united  world 
coal  for  thirty  years.  We  have  more  timber  in 
Letcher  County  than  in  any  other  county  in  Ken- 
tucky. We  have  twenty-six  big  mountains  in  Letcher 
County  well  covered  with  timber,  such  mountains  as 
the  Black  and  Cumberland  and  others. 

We  have  some  of  the  richest  corporations  and  com- 
panies in  the  United  States,  such  as  the  Consolidation 
Coal  Company  at  Jenkins,  Kentucky  and  the  Elkhorn 
Coal  Company  at  Fleming,  Ky.  As  to  schools, 
Letcher  stands  first.  Letcher  can  boast  of  the  best 
of  schools  and  churches.  You  don't  see  any  of  those 
old  log  schoolhouses  any  more,  but  they  are  the  latest 
styles.  Likewise  are  the  churches.  As  to  language, 
there  is  but  a  very  few  people  who  use  any  more  of 
that  good  old  bygone  days  language.  The  old  spin- 
ning wheels  and  looms  are  about  all  played  out.  We 
have  three  large  beautiful  streams  of  water  flowing 
through  Letcher  County,  the  Cumberland  River,  the 
north  fork  of  the  Kentucky  River  and  Rockhouse 
Creek.  We  have  the  purest  water  in  the  world.  The 
air  is  just  fine.  Many  people  come  to  the  mountains 
to  get  fresh  air. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


89 


We  don't  have  any  wild  animals  in  our  mountains. 
We  have  some  poison  snakes,  such  as  the  copperheads 
and  rattlesnakes.  Clint  Cornett  last  year  killed  seven- 
teen copperheads  and  rattlesnakes  each  on  Pigeon 
Ridge  of  Line  Fork,  all  under  one  edge  of  a  rock  all 
rolled  and  coiled  up  together  in  the  same  bed  just 
like  owls,  prairie  dogs,  cotton  tails  and  rattlesnakes 
do  in  Texas  in  the  prairie  dog  towns. 

While  I  was  in  Texas  and  before  I  went  to  railroad- 
ing on  the  trains  an  old  passenger  engineer  and  I  went 
to  Davis  Mountain  bear  hunting.  We  killed  two 
black  bears  and  caught  one  young  bear.  We  saw 
quite  a  few  droves  of  antelope  and  it  was  a  very  heavy 
fine  to  kill  one,  but  we  did,  and  we  had  some  real 
good  eating.  We  was  in  the  western  part  of  Texas 
and  came  in  at  El  Paso,  Texas,  on  Friday.  We  went 
over  the  river  into  Old  Mexico  to  a  big  bull  fight.  It 
sure  was  something  awful  to  look  upon.  I  will  try 
and  explain  it  to  you  as  I  saw  it. 

It  was  a  holiday,  celebrating  the  big  day  of  Repub- 
lic, the  fifth  day  of  May.  They  put  three  bulls  im- 
ported from  Spain  against  four  native  bulls.  The 
owners  from  Spain  were  artists  when  it  come  to 
butchering  horses.  If  they  had  killed  a  few  of  the 
ignorant  and  cruel  Mexicans  who  were  riding  the 
poor  beasts  up  to  be  gored  to  death  they  would  have 
won  my  applause.  One  horse  was  injured  six  times 
and  each  time  ridden  to  be  gored. again,  until  finally 
killed  by  the  bull.  It  was  enough  to  disgust  old 
"Villa,"  whom  General  Pershing  run  out  of  Mexico 
in  1915-16,  and  still  men  and  women  and  little  chil- 
dren went  wild  and  shouted  for  joy  at  the  sight  of 
blood  and  the  suffering  of  the  dumb  brutes. 


90  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

The  engineer  was  an  American  and  had  been  born 
in  Louisville,,  Ky.,  but  was  working  for  the  Mexican 
National  Railroad  and  had  been  hurt  in  a  wreck  and 
had  a  six  months'  layoff.  After  the  bull  fight  we 
visited  the  noted  Church  of  Guadalupe,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  built  by  Montezuma  in  memory  of  the 
angel  Guadalupe.     After  going  through  the  church 


FESS  WHITAKER 


and  seeing  the  "sirape"  (blanket)  which  this  angel 
saint  wore  on  her  flying  trip  from  Heaven  to  Mexico 
City,  we  climbed  the  hill  to  the  graveyard  where  all 
the  noted  warriors  are  buried.  It  covered  a  couple  of 
acres,  and  a  guard  with  a  rifle  and  sword  is  kept  on 
duty  night  and  day.  On  coming  to  old  General  Santa 
Anna's  grave  I  thought  of  poor  Davy  Crockett  and 
his  brave  followers,  who  met  their  fate  in  the  Alamo 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  91 

at  San  Antonio,  Texas,  through  the  inhuman  blood 
craving  of  this  same  old  general.  The  earth  mound 
where  he  sleeps  was  plastered  over  with  all  kinds  of 
fancy  many  colored  pieces  of  broken  chinaware.  One 
particular  pretty  piece  took  my  eye  and  I  told  the 
engineer,  Mr.  Dovis,  that  it  would  be  in  my  cabinet 
of  curiosities  if  it  should  cost  me  a  heavy  fine.  The 
engineer  said,  Fess,  that  it  would  mean  possibly 
death  or  a  long  term  in  a  Mexican  dungeon  if  I  were 
caught  stealing  from  this  "big  chief's"  grave,  but 
when  he  found  that  I  was  determined  to  risk  it  with 
this  copper-colored  son  of  old  Montezuma  he  agreed 
to  assist  me  by  steering  the  guard  away  to  another 
part  of  the  graveyard  and  try  and  keep  his  back 
towards  me  by  asking  him  questions  about  the  city, 
which  lay  at  our  feet  in  plain  view.  The  guard  stood 
in  sight  with  the  seat  of  his  white  cotton  pants 
towards  me  when  I  climbed  over  the  sharp  painted, 
tall  iron  pickets  and  secured  the  piece.  I  wondered 
if  poor  old  Davy  Crockett  turned  over  in  his  grave  to 
smile  at  me. 

David  Crockett's  parents  died  when  he  was  a  very 
small  boy  and  he  had  seA/en  brothers  older  than  him 
and  he  soon  learned  to  use  his  mouth  and  fist.  Poor 
little  Crockett  when  a  boy  had  nobody  to  sing  him 
to  sleep  or  teach  him  a  prayer.  Davy  Crockett  was 
born  August  17,  1786,  in  Limestone,  Tenn.  He  was 
born  in  a  little  old  log  hut  with  no  floor  in  it. 

Crockett's  ambition  was  to  "go  ahead."  He  was 
made  Colonel  during  the  Indian  war,  then  he  was 
sent  to  the  Legislature.  David  Crockett  was  a  great 
bear  hunter.  When  war  broke  out  with  Texas  and 
Mexico  he  pulled  out  for  the  West. 


92  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

After  he  got  to  Fort  Worth  he  bought  him  a  Mus- 
tang pony  and  rode  all  over  the  plains  and  had  many 
a  good  race  with  buffaloes,  as  Texas  was  well  covered 
with  all  kinds  of  wild  animals  then.  After  hunting 
about  two  months  he  pulled  straight  for  San  Antonio, 
Texas,  and  soon  was  in  the  Fortress  of  Alamo,  where 
the  great  fight  lasted  for  sixty  days.  He  was  received 
in  the  fort  with  shouts  of  welcome.  They  had  all 
heard  of  Col.  Crockett  through  the  influence  of  the 
Texas  rangers.  Most  of  them  from  the  United  States 
had  declared  their  independence  of  Mexico  rule  and 
had  set  up  a  government  of  their  own. 

Col.  Travis  was  in  command  of  the  fortress.  They 
only  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  fort  and 
had  to  go  up  against  the  whole  Mexican  army.  The 
Mexican  army  fired  on  the  fort  in  February  with 
President  Santa  Anna  at  the  head,  whose  grave  I 
'stole  my  pieces  of  chinaware  off  of.  One  morning 
Crockett  was  awakened  by  a  shot  against  part  of  the 
fort  in  which  he  was  sleeping.  He  dressed  in  a  hurry 
and  before  they  took  the  fort  he  had  shot  six  gunners 
dead  from  behind  a  cannon  that  had  been  placed  in 
the  front  of  the  Alamo.  Day  by  day  the  fortress  of 
the  besieged  grew  darker  and  darker.  There  was  no 
hope  of  aid,  food  and  water,  all  had  failed  them. 
David  Crockett  kept  a  journal  of  the  daily  happen- 
ings in  the  fortress.  On  the  sixth  day  of  March  the 
entire  Mexican  army  attacked  the  Alamo  and  the 
resistance  was  desperate.  When  the  fort  was  taken 
only  six  men  of  its  defenders  were  living.  Poor  little 
David  Crockett  was  one  of  them.  He  was  found  in 
an  angle  of  the  building  behind  a  breastwork  of  Mex- 
icans whom  he  had  slain. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  93 

It  is  said  that  in  the  assault  upon  the  Alamo  the 
Mexicans  lost  more  than  a  thousand  men.  The  six 
prisoners  were  taken  before  Santa  Anna,  President 
of  Mexico.  Crockett  strode  along,  fearless  and 
majestic.  Santa  Anna  was  displeased  that  the  pris- 
oners had  been  spared  so  long,  frowned  and  said  that 
he  had  given  other  orders  concerning  them.  The 
swords  of  his  men  gleamed  and  they  rushed  upon  the 
unarmed  prisoners.  The  dauntless  Crockett  gave  the 
spring  of  a  tiger  toward  the  dark  leader,  Santa  Anna, 
but  before  he  could  reach  him  he  had  been  cut  down 
by  a  dozen  swords.  Crockett's  last  words  were,  "Lib- 
erty and  independence  forever."  At  the  death  of 
Crockett  he  was  not  quite  fifty  years  old. 

Forty  years  ago  there  was  lots  of  trouble  and  feuds 
in  Letcher  County.  Will  try  and  give  the  public  a 
true  story  about  two  killings  by  the  same  man  and 
both  men  that  was  killed  were  Banks'.  Link  Banks 
was  killed  forty  years  ago  by  J.  H.  Frese,  and  William 
Banks  eleven  months  ago  by  J.  H.  Frese.  I  now  have 
Mr.  Frese  in  my  jail  under  a  sentence  of  life  waiting 
to  hear  from  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

Early  in  the  eighties  Letcher  County,  Ky.,  now  a 
very  rich  and  flourishing  mountain  county,  was  the 
scene  of  innumerable  feuds.  So  bitter  was  the  feel- 
ing that  the  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  and  the 
Commonwealth's  Attorney  did  not  dare  punish 
any  of  the  feudists,  knowing  that  a  vigorous  prosecu- 
tion and  a  conviction  of  the  member  of  either  faction 
would  be  followed  by  their  own  murder  at  the  hands 
of  the  adherents  of  that  party.  Cases  were  on  the 
docket  that  had  to  be  tried,  and  the  Governor 
appointed    Judge    William    L.  Jackson,    of    Louis- 


94  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

ville,  to  try  them.  It  was  understood  that  there 
was  not  a  lawyer  in  the  district  who  would  act  as 
Commonwealth's  Attorney  on  these  trials,  and  that 
it  would  be  necessary  to  procure  a  Commonwealth's 
Attorney  from  some  other  district,  and  Judge  Jack- 
son announced  that  he  would  appoint  Major  W.  R. 
Kinney,  of  the  Louisville  bar,  to  act  as  prosecutor. 

In  those  days  there  were  no  shorthand  writers  in 
any  part  of  Kentucky  except  Louisville,  and  it  was 
arranged  for  one  to  go  along  so  that  in  the  event  of  a 
conviction  and  the  necessity  for  a  bill  of  exceptions 
it  could  be  easily  and  promptly  made.  A  party  of  six 
men  started  from  Louisville.  The  court  never  did 
know  what  the  other  three  went  for,  but  inferred  they 
were  a  bodyguard,  as  they  were  all  members  of  the 
State  militia.  Railroads  are  now  running  through  Let- 
cher County,  and  the  boom  town  of  Jenkins  is  just 
across  the  mountains  from  Whitesburg,  then,  as  now, 
the  county  seat.  But  in  those  days  they  had  to  ride 
horseback  100  miles  across  the  country  to  get  here. 
They  went  from  Richmond  to  Paintsville,  to  Preston- 
burg  and  up  the  Big  Sandy  Valley  to  Whitesburg, 
and  going  up  every  man  of  them  wanted  the  best  look- 
ing horse  to  ride.  Coming  back  they  all  fought  for  the 
quietest  looking  mule.  Traveling  in  the  Kentucky 
mountains  a  sure-footed  mule  is  a  jewel ;  but  they 
didn't  know  that  when  they  started  out. 

Well,  they  blew  in  on  Saturday  night  and  were 
all  so  dead  beat  that  they  wanted  to  get  to  sleep  as 
soon  as  they  could.    Just  before  they  went  to  bed  the 

proprietor  of  the  hotel  (Jim  S )  came  to  the  room 

for  something  and  saw  them  standing  in  front  of  a 
couch  with  long  white  nightshirts  on.     He  stared  at 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  95 

them  and  seemed  stupefied.  Finally  he  managed  to 
ask  them  what  that  was  they  had  on. 

"A  nightshirt,"  one  said. 

"Do  men  sleep  in  them  thar  things  whar  you  come 
from?" 

One  assured  him  that  they  did. 

"Well,  I'll  be  damned !"  he  said,  and  the  next  day 
they  found  he  had  surreptitiously  taken  their  night- 
shirt out  of  their  room  to  show  some  of  his  friends 
what  the  "furriners  from  down  below"  slept  in. 

They  got  up  in  the  morning,  and,  stepping  out 
of  the  building  which  by  courtesy  they  called  a  hotel, 

they    saw   a    mountaineer   named    Bill   D with 

his  trousers  in  his  boots,  the  typical  long,  fierce-look- 
ing mustache,  and  his  pistol  hanging  at  his  left  side. 
They  had  not  been  shaved  since  they  left  Louisville. 
They  had  been  on  the  road  about  a  week  and  needed 
a  shave  badly,  and,  addressing  the  mountaineer,  one 
said: 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,  but  will  you  kindly  tell  me 
where  the  barber  shop  is?" 

When  he  turned  his  face  on  them  they  almost  start- 
ed to  run  from  him.  They  did  not  know  that  they  had 
said  anything  to  provoke  anger,  but  in  all  their  life 
they  had  never  seen  as  vicious  a  look  as  he  gave  them 
as  he  bellowed: 

Barber  shop?  Hell!  You  know  thar  hain't  no  barber 
shop  in  this  country,  and  we  don't  'low  for  you'uns 
to  come  up  to  this  place  and  make  fun  of  we'uns." 

They  hastened  to  assure  the  gentleman  that  it  had 
never  occurred  to  them  that  there  was  any  place  where 
they  didn't  have  a  barber  shop,  and  they  said  to  him: 

"You  see  we  need  a  shave,  and  we  must  have  one. 
How  on  earth  can  we  get  shaved?" 

"Shave  yourself,"  he  said. 


96  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

"But/'  said  we,  "there  are  two  reasons  why  we  can't 
shave.  We  haven't  any  razor,  and  in  the  second 
place  we  can't." 

"Well,"  he  said,  "go  over  and  see  Jim  Frese." 

He  directed  us  to  Mr.  Frese's  place  and  we  went 
over  there  and  found  a  nice-looking  gentleman  about 
thirty-five  years  of  age,  whose  very  appearance  put 
us  at  ease.  We  stated  to  Mr.  Frese  the  object  of  our 
errand,  told  him  that  we  did  not  know  there  were  no 
barber  shops  here  and  we  had  not  brought  a  razor.  He 
said  he  had  just  finished  shaving,  which  sounded  good 
to  us  after  our  experience  with  the  mountaineer  on 
the  hotel  porch,  and  that  he  would  be  delighted  to  let 
us  use  his  razor.  We  took  the  utensils,  lathered  up  one 
man  and  began  shaving.  He  watched  the  process. 
About  every  three  pulls  he  made  with  the  razor  he  cut 
himself  twice.  We  remember  it  was  a  very  keen  razor, 
too.  He  noticed  the  poor  job  he  was  making  and  said 
to  him: 

"You  are  not  accustomed  to  shaving  yourself?" 
"No,"  said  he,  "I  have  never  shaved  myself  in  my 
life  before." 

He  offered  to  shave  the  crowd  and  we  thanked  him 
and  told  him  we  would  be  pleased  to  have  him  do  it 
and  he  leaned  one  of  the  men  back  in  an  ordinary  high 
chair,  stretched  his  head  back  and  Mr.  Frese  began 
shaving  him. 

Mr.  Frese's  house  was  well  kept,  neat  and  clean, 
much  more  so  than  that  of  any  other  moun- 
taineer with  whom  we  had  come  into  contact  in  the 
journey  across  the  country,  and  his  language  was 
well  chosen  and  grammatical.    His  whole  appearance 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  97 


betokened  a  man  of  affairs  in  the  community.  We 
thought  it  a  splendid  time  to  commence  getting  in- 
formation. 

We  remember  distinctly  that  he  used  the  word 
"murder"  instead  of  "killings."  He  was  pulling  the 
razor  over  our  taut  neck  just  about  the  jugular  vein, 
and  he  said  : 

"Well,  the  last  man  who  was  killed,  I  killed  him." 

We  gave  a  start,  and  it  was  quite  a  bit  of  luck  that  he 
was  not  cut,  so  great  had  been  our  involuntary  jerk. 
Immediately  he  said: 

"Do  you  want  a  close  shave?" 

"No,  just  once  over  ,"  he  responded  hurriedly. 

It  afterward  turned  out  that  Mr.  Frese  was,  as  we 
had  sized  him  up,  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of  that 
whole  section.  For  anything  you  wanted  or  anything 
you  wanted  to  know,  you  had  to  apply  to  Jim  Frese. 
And  this  very  thing  had  gotten  him  into  trouble. 

One  morning  Link  Banks,  a  mountaineer,  came  into 
Whitesburg,  tanked  up  on  moonshine  whisky,  and, 
meeting  Black  Shade  Combs,  another  mountaineer, 
said  to  him: 

"I  came  in  to  kill  somebody  this  morning,  and  I 
just  believe  I'll  kill  you." 

The  prospective  corpse  was  not  "heeled,"  as  he  was 
not  in  any  feud  just  then,  and  was  not  expecting 
trouble,  but  he  knew  that  he  would  have  to  act,  and 
quickly,  by  his  wits,  or  he  would  be  shot,  and  he 
turned  on  the  fellow  and  said  carelessly: 

"Oh,  pshaw,  don't  kill  me;  kill  Jim  Frese." 


98  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

"Well,  I  believe  I  will,"  and  Link  Banks,  the  killer, 
staggered  over  to  Jim  Frese's  store.  He  had  never 
had  a  particle  of  trouble  with  Mr.  Frese,  as  nobody 
else  up  in  the  section  had  ever  had,  but  he  walked 
into  the  store  where  Mr.  Frese  was  behind  the  counter 
and  raised  his  gun  and  cut  loose  at  him.  He  missed 
the  first  shot  and  Frese  dropped  down  behind  the 
counter,  ran  some  twelve  or  fifteen  feet,  grabbing  his 
pistol  as  he  went,  and  rising  that  distance  from  where 
Link  Banks,  the  mountaineer,  expected  him  to  rise, 
got  the  drop  on  the  latter  before  he  could  change  the 
direction  of  his  pistol  and  killed  him. 

The  Circuit  Court  was  in  session  and  a  majority  of 
grand  jurors  were  in  Mr.  Frese's  store  at  the  time  and 
saw  the  whole  occurrence.  Upon  the  convening  of 
court  the  grand  jury  requested  the  Commonwealth's 
Attorney  to  draw  up  an  indictment  against  James 
Frese  for  manslaughter  and  submit  it  to  them.  This 
was  done,  and  about  ten  minutes  after  the  grand 
jurors  went  to  their  room  they  returned  and  said  they 
had  a  partial  report  to  make  and  handed  back  the 
indictment  against  James  Frese  for  manslaughter 
with  the  word  across  it  "Dismissed."  Frese  was 
never  further  brought  before  the  court  on  the  charge. 

But  we  did  not  know  all  this  when  Mr.  Frese  was 
calmly  pulling  that  razor  over  one  of  the  men's  neck 
and  saying: 

"The  last  man  who  was  killed,  I  killed  him." 

Even  in  those  feud  days  there  were  a  great  many 
law-abiding  Christians  in  the  mountains,  and  it 
was  our  endeavor  to  cultivate  friendly  relations 
with  as  many  of  these  as  we  could.  Judge 
Jackson  had  sternly  admonished  our  whole  party  to 
pursue  this  course. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  " 

One  Saturday  evening  when  court  adjourned  early 
to  allow  the  witnesses  to  get  out  to  their  homes  for 
Sunday,  we  noticed  in  an  end  of  the  town  which  I  had 
not  yet  explored,  a  long,  low,  wide  building,  and  I 
inquired  of  R.  B.  Bentley,  one  of  the  residents  sitting 
near  me,  what  that  building  was. 

"That,"  he  said,  "is  a  church  house." 

"A  church!  Why,  do  you  ever  have  services  up 
in  this  section?" 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "about  eight  or  ten  months  ago  thar 
was  a  circuit  rider  come  along  and  we  had  meetin'. 
We  only  have  meetin'' s  wThen  somebody  comes  along. 
We  hain't  got  no  regular  preacher." 

"Well,"  said  one,  anxious  to  get  solid  with  all 
churchgoers,  "we  are  going  to  have  services  tomor- 
row morning." 

"Who's  gwine  to  preach?"  he  said. 

One  of  them  said:  "Major  W.  R.  Kinney,  the  Prose- 
cuting Attorney,  teaches  a  Bible  class  at  home.  He 
is  the  finest  talker  in  the  United  States,  bar  nobody, 
and  I  will  get  him  to  preach." 

We  were  not  speaking  in  hyperbole  when  we  were 
telling  him  of  Major  Kinney's  attainments  as  a  ora- 
tor. We  have  reported  all  orators  of  the  past  quarter 
of  a  century,  and  we  have  never  heard  his  equal.  He 
had  the  vocabulary  of  a  Proctor  Knott  or  President 
Lincoln.  He  had  diction  and  voice  equal  to  W.  C.  P. 
Breckinridge.  He  had  the  dramatic  instinct  of  John  P. 
Irish  and  Bourke  Cochran,  and  as  to  fluency  of  speech 
William  Jennings  Bryan  is  tongue-tied  compared 
with  him.  This  was  the  character  of  orator  that: 
was  going  to  turn  loose  on  that  mountain  congrega- 
tion. 


100 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


So  the  news  was  spread  that  we  were  going  to  have 
"meetin'  "  next  morning.  Saturday  evening  we  went 
over  to  the  church  house — everything  in  the 
mountains  is  a  house.  The  court  is  a  courthouse,  the 
jail  is  a  jailhouse,  the  hotel  is  a  tavernhouse,  etc. 


They  had  a  small  organ  in  it  and  we  tried  to  find  the 
organist  and  choir.  We  learned  they  did  not  have  an 
organist,  but  they  had  about  eight  or  ten  big  strong- 
voiced  singers,  and,  as  they  played  the  organ  after  a 
fashion,  we  took  the  bunch  over  and  we  rehearsed 
four  or  five  hymns. 

The  next  morning  at  service  we  had  a  very  good 
crowd.  In  fact,  everybody  in  the  town  was  there. 
Before  the  preaching  it  occured  to  us  that  the 
Major,  being  such  a  dyed-in-the-wool  Methodist  and 
so  well  posted  on  the  tenets  and  dogmas  of  that  faith, 
the  temptation  would  be  for  him  to  preach  a  doctrinal 
sermon.  We  knew  that  the  Baptists  and  Presbyteri- 
ans were  the  strong  denominations  up  in  that  section 
and  we  did  not  think  Arminian  doctrines  would  ap- 
peal to  Calvinists,  so  we  took  the  Major  to  one  side 
and  told  him  that  no  doctrinal  sermon  went;  that 
Christ  crucified  to  save  sinners  was  all  that  he  should 
preach,  and  he  agreed  to  it  and  preached  a  sermon  the 
only  equal  of  which  he  preached  later  that  day. 

When  the  services  were  over  very  few  went  to  the 
Major;  they  all  came  to  thank  the  remainder  of  us  for 
the  wonderful  sermon  we  had  procured  for  them  and 
immediately  requested  that  we  have  "meetin'  "  again 
that  night.     Of  course  we  agreed. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  101 

To  this  day  those  two  sermons  are  discussed  and 
gone  over  by  the  old  residents. 

Early  in  the  month  of  November,  1918,  William 
Banks,  of  Smoot  Creek,  came  to  Whitesburg  to  give 
his  depositions  in  a  suit  filed  against  J.  H,  Frese  for 
destroying  his  peace.  Mr.  Banks  had  sued  Mr.  Frese 
for  $10,000  damages.  His  lawyer,  Mr.  Lewis,  of 
Hyden,  Ky.,  was  in  town,  and  Mr.  Banks  walked  up 
and  into  the  courthouse  and  went  in  the  Sheriff's 
office  and  asked  about  Mr.  Lewis,  if  he  was  in  town. 
He  was  informed  that  he  was  in  Mr.  Hawks'  office, 
which  was  somewhere  in  the  Bank  building.  Mr. 
Banks  walked  out  of  the  courthouse,  up  the  sidewalk 
about  fifteen  feet  and  across  Main  street  towards  the 
First  National  Bank  building,  where  the  lawyer  was. 
Just  as  he  got  in  front  of  Lewis  Brothers'  store  Mr. 
Banks  slapped  his  hand  on  his  breast  and  hollowed 
and  ran  into  Lewis'  store  and  fell.  He  died  in  about 
five  minutes  with  a  thirty  by  fifty  bullet  hole  square 
through  him,  hitting  him  in  the  back  just  under  the 
shoulder  blade  out  in  front  by  the  left  nipple. 

Nobody  saw  the  shooting,  but  the  bullet  came  very 
near  killing  Judge  Sam  Collins,  and  lodged  in  the 
window  sill  of  the  First  National  Bank.  In  about  ten 
minutes  SherifT  Charlie  Back,  Commonwealth's  At- 
torney R.  Monroe  Fields  and  County  Attorney  F.  G. 
Fields  located  the  bullet  in  the  window  sill  and, 
searching  its  range,  it  proved  to  be  the  shot  fired  from 
the  back  door  of  Frese's  store  building.  So  they  went 
in  Mr.  Frese's  store  and  he  was  sweeping  and  they 
told  him  they  wanted  to  search  for  the  gun.  He  told 
them  to  help  themselves.  So  on  searching  they  found 
two  big  forty-five  pistols  and  a  regular  army  rifle,  and 


102  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

not  one  of  them  had  been  fired.  So  they  took  the 
weapons  with  them  and  put  a  guard  around  the  Frese 
store.  They  went  and  cut  the  bullet  out  of  the  win- 
dow sill  in  the  First  National  Bank  and  the  ball  was 
so  large  it  would  not  fit  any  gun  that  could  be  found 
in  Whitesburg. 

So  the  Commonwealth's  Attorney,  R.  Monroe 
Fields,  was  not  satisfied  with  the  search  in  Frese's 
store  and  went  in  the  second  time,  and  on  arriving 
the  second  time  he  told  Mr.  Frese  he  was  not  satis- 
fied with  the  search  and  wanted  to  search  again.  Mr. 
Frese  told  him  to  search  all  he  wanted  to,  but  he  was 
sure  there  were  no  more  guns  in  the  store.  Mr.  Frese 
had  fired  the  deadly  weapon  and  had  made  a  regular 
pocket  under  his  counter  to  hide  the  gun  when  he  got 
the  chance  to  fire  his  deadly  shot  into  Banks  after  he 
had  taken  Mr.  Banks'  wife. 

The  Commonwealth's  Attorney  searched  good  the 
second  time  and  was  about  to  find  the  gun  and  Mr. 
Frese  began  to  get  scared  and  tried  to  lead  him  away 
from  the  spot  and  to  look  behind  the  hats  on  top  of 
the  shelves,  so  this  made  Mr.  Fields  know  he  was 
close  to  the  gun,  and  after  moving  three  planks  he 
pulled  her  out  of  her  deathly  hidden  hole.  The  gun 
was  still  hot  and  the  powder  was  in  the  barrel  and 
the  bullet  that  was  taken  out  of  the  window  sill  just 
fit  the  gun  that  was  found  last,  thirty  by  fifty. 

By  this  time  Mr.  Jesse  Day,  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
had  issued  a  warrant  for  Mr.  Frese,  accusing  him,  and 
he  was  placed  in  jail.  On  the  next  day,  November  10, 
the  examining  trial  was  held  by  Judge  H,  T.  Day  and 
he  was  held  over  to  answer  such  indictment  that  the 
grand  jury  may  return  without  bond.     January  term 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  103 

the  Judge,  John  F.  Butler,  was  sick,  and  when  the 
April  term  of  Circuit  Court  came  Mr.  Frese  was  in- 
dicted for  willful  murder  in  the  first  degree  and  his 
case  was  continued  until  the  August  term.  An  order 
was  made  to  bring  the  jurors  from  Clark  County,  as 
Frese  swore  that  he  could  not  get  a  fair  trial  in 
Letcher  County  and  a  change  of  venue  overruled. 

So  Mr.  Jim  Tolliver,  the  Sheriff  of  Letcher  County, 
brought  seventy  good  men  from  Clark  County,  and  a 
splendid  jury  of  twelve  men  was  selected  from  that 
body  of  men.  Now,  our  Circuit  Judge,  J.  F.  Butler, 
became  sick  again,  as  he  is  in  bad  health  and  had  to 
quit  again,  so  all  the  lawyers  of  the  bar  and  the  attor- 
neys on  both  sides  agreed  to  appoint  the  Hon.  H.  C. 
Faulkner,  of  Hazard,  Ky.,  to  try  the  Frese  case. 
The  jury  selected  was: 

W.  G.  Butler,  W.  B.  Sudduth, 

W.  A.  Judy,  J.  H.  Riggs, 

A.  F.   Mastin,  M.  L.  Mareland, 

Zack  Brown,  B.  C.  Taylor, 

Elburge  Babor,  W.  E.  Rice, 

Zane  Ellis,  W.  C.  Taylor. 

The  prosecuting  attorneys  were  Hon.  Grant  For- 
rester, of  Harlan,  Ky. ;  Commonwealth's  Attorney  R. 
Monroe  Fields  and  County  Attorney  F.  G.  Fields. 
The  attorneys  for  the  defendant  were :  Lawyer  Floyd 
Byrd,  of  Lexington;  W.  K.  Brown,  Whitesburg;  Sen- 
ator Ed  Hogg,  Paris;  Judge  Benton,  Winchester;  D. 
D.  Fields,  Dug  Day  and  David  Hayes,  Whitesburg; 
W.  C.  Dearing,  Louisville,  and  Hon.  Bill  May, 
Jenkins,  Ky. 

The  Commonwealth  finished  in  four  days  and 
taking  the  proof  of  the  defendant's  side  finished  in 


104  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

three  days.  Then  the  argument  began,  of  which 
Judge  Benton  was  first,  then  F."  G.  Fields,  Senator 
Hogg,  Grant  Forrester  and  Judge  Byrd.  Then  R. 
Monroe  Fields  finished.  The  argument  from  the 
defendant's  side  was  very  poor.  The  attorneys  left 
the  case  completely  and  all  they  done  was  to  make 
fun  of  Letcher  County  and  its  officers.  The  attorneys 
for  the  Commonwealth  stayed  with  the  case  and  the 
proof  and  a  verdict  was  rendered  in  about  fifty  min- 
utes for  life  in  the  pen. 

The  first  vote  was  seven  for  the  chair,  four  for  life 
and  one  for  two  to  twenty-one  years.  When  the  jury 
asked  the  Judge  for  pen  and  ink  to  write  the  verdict 
with  the  Judge  ordered  me  to  bring  out  the  prisoner. 
The  courthouse  bell  was  rung  and  the  courthouse  was 
full  in  ten  minutes.  The  jury  came  out  of  the  jury 
room  and  took  their  seats  in  the  jury  box  and  the 
Judge  asked  them  if  they  had  a  verdict  and  they 
answered,  "We  have,"  and  the  Judge  ordered  them 
to  read  it  and  it  was  read.  If  I  ever  saw  an  intelli- 
gent jury  in  my  life  that  was  one.  After  the  verdict 
was  read  the  attorneys  for  Frese  asked  for  a  new  trial 
and  a  change  of  venue,  which  was  overruled  by  Judge 
H.  C.  Faulkner.  Then  the  attorneys  for  Frese  took 
the  case  to  the  Court  of  Appeals  for  a  new  trial  and 
change  of  venue  and  were  granted  sixty  days  to  hear 
from  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

Mr.  Frese  is  a  very  wealthy  man.  He  owns  all 
kinds  of  coal  and  timber  land. 

The  Letcher  County  docket  stands  clear  without 
a  murder  case  on  the  book  now — thank  God  for  that 
— and  I  am  glad  I  have  lived  to  see  old  Letcher  stand 
ahead  in  law  and  order.     We  must  give  the  Hon.  J. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


R.  MONROE  FIELDS 
Commonwealth's  attorney,  35th  Judicial  District,  Letcher  and  Pike  Counties 


106  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

F.  Butler,  Judge  of  the  Thirty-fifth  district,  and  also 
our  Commonwealth's  Attorney,  R.  Monroe  Fields, 
credit  for  nine-tenths  of  it. 

R.  Monroe  Fields  was  born  on  the  head  of  King's 
Creek  at  the  foot  of  the  Laurel  Mountains.  He  never 
was  in  college,  but  got  what  education  he  has  in  a 
very  homely  schoolhouse.  He  was  granted  law 
license  to  practice  law  when  he  was  eighteen  years 
old.  Mr.  Fields'  first  case  was  a  very  funny  case. 
William  Mclntire,  merchant  at  the  mouth  of  Rock- 
house,  had  sued  Andy  Crase  for  $300  for  store  ac- 
count. When  the  case  was  called  Mr,  Fields  stated 
to  the  court  that  you  could  not  bring  a  suit  in  a  magis- 
trate's court  over  $200,  so  Mr.  Mclntire  agreed  to 
knock  off  one  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Fields  claimed 
that  he  had  paid  the  account  in  full  and  also  claimed 
limitation  on  all  the  account  except  ten  cents'  worth 
of  horseshoe  nails  which  had  been  bought  inside  of 
two  years.  Mr.  Fields  showed  the  court  where  an 
account  was  over  two  years  old  you  could  not  bring 
suit,  and  so  Mr.  Dixon,  the  magistrate,  took  Mr.  Mc- 
lntire out  and  read  him  the  law  and  he  agreed  to 
knock  off  the  other  $200,  as  he  did  not  want  to  get 
stuck  for  the  costs,  and  he  agreed  to  law  it  out  for  the 
ten  cents'  worth  of  horseshoe  nails.  A  jury  was 
called  and  the  court  began  to  take  the  proof.  The 
case  lasted  something  like  two  hours.  The  case  got 
very  hot.  Both  parties  accused  each  other  of  swear- 
ing lies  and  the  court  threatened  to  fine  them  if  they 
did  not  hush  up  that  talk.  So  finally  the  case  was 
finished  and  both  sides  of  the  case  was  argued  on. 
One  side  was  argued  on  by  Mr.  Fields  and  the  other 
by  Mr.  Mclntire,  an  uneducated  merchant. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  107 

After  the  argument  was  over  the  instructions  were 
given  the  jury,  and  after  being  out  about  one  hour  the 
jury  came  in  and  reported  that  they  could  not  agree. 
The  court  then  sent  them  back  in  the  jury  room  the 
second  time  to  make  a  verdict,  if  possible.  After 
something  about  one-half  an  hour  they  reported  the 
second  time  that  they  could  not  agree,  so  the  court 
sent  them  back  the  third  time  and  asked  them,  if  pos- 
sible, to  agree.  They  were  out  this  time  only  about 
fifteen  minutes  and  reported  that  they  could  not 
agree,  as  there  were  only  three  and  three.  So  the 
jury  was  dismissed  and  both  sides  agreed  to  pay  his 
part  of  the  costs  and  the  suit  to  be  settled,  which  was 
agreed  upon.  So  Mr.  Fields  won  his  case  for  his 
client,  Mr.  Crase,  and  received  his  five  ($5)  dollar  fee 
out  of  a  ten-cent  suit  for  horseshoe  nails. 

Since  that  time  Mr.  Fields  has  won  some  very  large 
cases  in  different  Circuit  Courts  and  the  Government 
courts  and  has  been  elected  once  County  Attorney 
and  twice  Commonwealth's  Attorney  of  the  Thirty- 
fifth  Judicial  District  of  Letcher  County,  which  was 
cut  off  of  Perry  County. 

The  first  County  Judge  was  Nat  Collins,  son  of  Jim 
Collins,  and  a  very  strong  preacher,  who  came  here  in 
1806  from  North  Carolina  and  was  making  his  way 
for  the  Bluegrass  section.  There  were  eight  men  and 
women  and  Preacher  Collins  led  the  bunch.  They 
had  come  by  the  way  of  Cumberland  Gap  and  did  not 
know  how  to  get  across  the  Stone  Mountain  into  the 
Bluegrass  region.  There  was  no  Cumberland  Gap 
tunnel  then  or  any  railroads,  only  a  wild  wilderness. 
The  bunch  came  up  Powell's  River  to  where  Wise, 
Va.,  is  now,  and  struck  out  through  the  Pound  Gap 


108 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


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Kentucky  Mountain  Life  109 

and  on  to  the  head  of  Kentucky  River  and  down  the 
river  to  where  Whitesburg  is  now  located.  There 
was  not  a  family  living  in  Letcher  County  then,  as 
Daniel  Boone  had  left  his  camp  at  the  mouth  of 
Boone's  Fork  and  went  to  the  fort  at  Boonesborough, 
so  they  passed  through  where  Whitesburg  now  is  and 
up  Sandlick  Creek  and  over  a  hill  on  to  Camp  Branch. 
It  was  just  before  Christmas  and  they  all  went  up  a 
small  drean  under  a  cliff  and  laid  out.  The  next 
morning  the  snow  was  six  feet  deep  and  they  were  all 
covered  with  snow.  The  snow  lasted  about  three 
months,  so  they  lay  up  all  winter  and  the  men  would 
kill  deer  and  wildturkey  and  they  all  had  a  very  good 
time  camping  out. 

The  next  spring  Jim  Collins  settled  at  the  mouth 
of  Camp  Branch,  known  as  Colson,  Ky.  His  son,  Nat 
Collins,  was  Letcher  County's  first  County  Judge,  and 
Judge  Nat  Collins  had  a  son  named  Madison  Collins, 
Jr.,  who  died  at  Colson,  Ky.,  a  year  ago  at  a  ripe  old 
age. 

Old  Judge  Nat  Collins  is  a  great-great-grandfather 
of  our  present  County  Judge,  Sam  Collins.  Old  Judge 
Nat  Collins  was  a  great  man  during  his  day.  He 
represented  twenty  mountain  counties  in  Congress 
and  in  the  Senate. 

Stephen  Hogg,  a  great-uncle  of  my  mother,  was 
the  first  Sheriff  of  Letcher  County.  Hiram  Hogg 
donated  ten  acres  of  land  to  the  county  where  Whites- 
burg now  stands  to  build  the  courthouse  and  jail,  to 
draw  the  town  back  down  the  river  one  mile  from 
where  Judge  Nat  Collins  held  his  court,  which  was 
held  in  one  of  the  old  mountain  log  cabins  built  by 
the  old  settlers  in  1806-1807-1808. 


110  History  of  Corporal  Fess'  Whitaker 


wiiiiiii 


^  *j&&  ' 


WSGBBSKtHttB& 


JUDGE  SAM  COLLINS 
January  1st,  1918-22 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


in 


LETCHER  COUNTY  COURT  HOUSE,  BUILT  1898 


112  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

After  Letcher  was  cut  off  from  Perry  and  made  a 
county,  Hiram  Hogg  was  the  first  representative  of 
Letcher  County  to  be  sent  to  the  State  Capitol  as  a 
lawmaker.  Letcher  County's  present  courthouse  was 
built  in  1898.  We  have  a  beautiful  courthouse  and 
square.  Our  present  County  Judge  is  young  Sam 
Collins,  who  has  done  more  for  Letcher  County  in 
the  way  of  morals  and  bringing  old  Letcher  to  the 
front  than  any  man  in  the  county.  He  was  Deputy 
Collector  and  Commissioner  for  years  and  he  sure 
put  the  moonshiners  out  of  Letcher  County,  and 
since  he  has  been  Judge  he  has  sure  put  the  whisky 
out  of  the  county.  I  went  in  office  the  same  day  he 
did  and  there  were  thirty-seven  prisoners  turned  over 
to  me  by  ex-Jailer  Bill  Hall.  Judge  Collins  kept  me  a 
good  bunch  of  boarders,  as  many  as  eight  moon- 
shiners per  day,  until  he  proved  to  them  and  to  the 
people  of  Letcher  County  that  moonshining  could 
not  be  carried  on  in  Letcher  County  as  long  as  he  was 
County  Judge,  and  by  his  noted  work  he  has  cut  my 
boarding  house  down  only  to  two  prisoners. 

He  is  doing  lots  for  Letcher  County  and  is  spend- 
ing lots  of  money  on  the  county  roads.  That  is  the 
kind  of  a  Judge  we  need  during  this  awful  war  for 
freedom.  He  is  always  sure  he  is  right  and  then  goes 
ahead. 

I  will  try  and  describe  the  log  house  that  my  poor 
old  widowed  mother  worked  so  hard  to  keep  us  and 
to  raise  and  educate  her  eight  children.  We  are  all 
pleased  to  know  that  we  had  a  mother  who  could  see 
the  future  as  she  did.  Her  great  ambition  was  to  edu- 
cate us  and  then  we  could  be  some  use  to  her  and  to 
the  world.  The  time  has  come  that  unless  you  have 
an  education  you  are  left  out. 


114 


History  of  Corporal  fess  Whitaker 


The  house  is  made  out  of  two  double  log  rooms,  six- 
teen by  eighteen  feet.  The  rooms  are  eight  by  six- 
teen feet.  The  logs  are  hewed  and  the  cracks  were 
daubed  with  mud,  but  you  will  notice  the  mud  has  all 
about  fell  out  of  the  cracks  and  nobody  there  to  help 
mother  put  it  back,  as  all  of  the  children  are  married 
and  gone  from  the  old  home.  You  will  notice  the 
hand-split  boards,  or  shingles,  made  with  a  frow  and 
hand  mall.  You  will  also  notice  the  old-fashioned 
chimney.  This  dear  old  typical  Kentucky  mountain 
log  house  is  where  I  spent  my  best  boyhood  days. 
There  is  nothing  like  Mother  and  Home.  You  will 
notice  the  author  in  the  front  yard  near  the  cedar 
tree,  where  my  dear  old  mother  cut  the  switches  and 
gave  me  such  a  whipping  and  put  long  division  run- 
ning through  my  brain  that  has  caused  me  to  be  a 
man. 

One  room  has  a  window  in  it.  This  we  all  called 
the  lower  room.  That  was  the  room  in  which  I  gave 
my  mother  and  four  brothers  the  money  that  I  worked 
out  for  them  at  Stonega.  My  mother  sometimes  has 
nightmares  in  her  sleep,  and  Dr.  Gid  Whitaker,  of 
Whitesburg,  Ky.,  has  the  same  thing  sometimes. 
After  we  all  got  grown  our  sister,  Julia,  came  home 
on  a  visit  from  Texas  and  we  all  would  sit  up  and 
talked  until  about  11  o'clock  in  the  night  and  then  we 
all  went  to  bed,  and  this  is  the  way  we  slept: 

My  wife  and  I  in  the  lower  room,  Dr.  Little  and 
wife  also  in  the  same  room,  and  Dr.  Gid  and  his  wife 
in  one. bed,  mother  and  Jessie,  daughter  of  Julia,  in 
one  bed,  and  Julia  in  the  other  bed.  All  three  of  the 
last  beds  were  in  the  upper  room.    So  about  2  o'clock 


Dr.  Gid  got  to  dreaming  about  getting  his  head  hung 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


115 


in  the  iron  bed  at  the  head  of  the  bed  and  it  turned 
into  a  nightmare.  And  Dr.  Gid  began  hollowing, 
"Oh,  ma!"  and  his  wife  nailed  him  by  his  nightshirt 
and  about  that  time  Dr.  Little  nailed  him  and  they 
turned  the  table  over  and  broke  up  all  of  the  dishes, 
and  by  that    time    mother  and  Julia  were    scared  to 


JOHN  COMBS  BARLOW 
Letcher  County's  last  fugitive 

death,  and  finally  I  got  to  him  and  got  him  quiet. 
After  the  scare  got  off  of  us  all  we  had  a  good  laugh 
and  never  did  go  back  to  bed  again  that  night.  And 
Julia  said  that  she  did  not  want  to  see  any  more  night- 
mares. 

There  is  but  one  mountain  fugitive  left.  The  above 
picture  is  the  likeness  of  John  Combs  Barlow,  one  of 
the  men  I  caught  thirteen  years  ago  on  the  head  of 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  117 

Island  Branch.  Up  until  yet  he  is  still  an  outlaw.  I 
now  have  him  in  my  jail  under  an  indictment  for  an 
awful  crime.  When  the  Commonwealth  gets  through 
with  him  he  will  be  quiet  and  a  good,  law-abiding 
citizen. 

In  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  there  was  only  one 
real  battle  fought  in  Letcher  County.  It  was  fought 
on  Crase's  Branch,  one  and  one-half  miles  from  the 
mouth  of  Rockhouse.  The  rebels  had  gathered  at 
Branson's  up  in  a  big  flat  about  one-fourth  of  a  mile 
up  on  the  branch.  They  had  taken  refuge  in  an  old 
typical  Kentucky  mountain  log  cabin  with  only  one 
door  and  one  chimney.  They  had  prepared  in  that 
cabin  to  fight  until  the  end,  like  Colonel  Travis  and 
Crockett  did  in  the  Alamo.  The  reader  will  take 
notice  of  the  bullet  holes  in  the  old  log  house  around 
the  window  and  the  door. 

This  house  was  built  in  1849,  but  the  old  roof  has 
all  decayed  and  has  been  covered  again  with  galvan- 
ized roofing,  but  the  old  mud  chimney  and  the  log 
walls  are  just  the  same. 

The  following  picture  is  Sheriff  James  Tolliver  and 
the  moonshine  still  that  was  raided  by  Judge  Sam  Col- 
lins and  Sheriff  Jim  Tolliver  on  September  15,  1918. 
It  was  found  on  the  head  of  Bottom  Fork,  tributary 
to  the  north  fork  of  the  Kentucky  River,  which 
empties  in  at  Mayking,  Ky.  The  still  is  a  fifty-gallon 
still.  It  was  a  fine  outfit,  five  big  hodges  of  beer 
and  a  real  big  trough  cut  out  in  a  big  tree  which  had 
fallen  to  slop  the  hogs  in. 


118 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


Sheriff  Tolliver  is  doing  some  real  good  work  as  a 
Sheriff.    He  and  his  deputy  sure  have  put  the  moon- 


shiners to  running. 


SHERIFF  J.  D.  TOLLIVER 
With  a  captured  still 


I  want  to  say  that  the  people  of  Letcher  County 
were  the  worst  surprised  set  of  people  that  ever  was 
when  the  Negroes,  Italians,  Dagoes,  dump  carts  and 
mules  and  horses  began  to  pull  into  Whitesburg 
from  Stonega  and  Appalachia,  Va.,  in  1910  to  begin 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  119 

work  on  the  L.  &  N.  Railroad,  which  was  a  new  con- 
struction from  Jackson  to  McRoberts,  to  the  greatest 
coal  fields  in  the  world.  The  railroad  right  of  way 
had  been  surveyed  many  times,  but  the  good  old  citi- 
zens never  thought  it  could  be  built,  and  finally  they 
got  a  bunch  of  men  to  get  the  right  of  way,  which 
the  biggest  part  of  the  citizens  had  signed  up  for  $50 
per  acre.  So  it  was  good  for  one  year,  and  finally 
the  contract  was  let  to  build  the  road,  and  then  here 
came  the  people. 

There  were  no  colored  people  in  Letcher  County 
or  any  foreign  immigrants  of  any  kind,  and  when 
they  began  to  drop  in  like  birds  the  good  old  citizens 
did  not  know  what  was  going  to  happen.  In  the 
month  of  November,  when  the  trees  were  shedding 
their  leaves  and  going  back  to  dust  like  we  all  will 
some  time,  there  came  an  awful  and  terrible  roaring 
up  the  dear  old  Kentucky  River  in  Letcher  County, 
and  what  could  it  be  only  Conductor  Spot  Combs  on 
the  first  train  that  ever  was  run  into  Letcher  County. 
It  was  a  work-  train  laying  the  first  steel  into  the 
county.  It  was  on  Friday  and  the  news  went  all  over 
the  county  just  like  wildfire.  So  there  was  a  large 
bridge  to  be  set  in  south  of  Ulvah  the  following  Sun- 
day and  I  believe  there  were  three  thousand  people 
gathered  to  see  the  train  come  to  set  in  the  bridge. 
They  had  rode  horseback  and  in  wagons,  which  were 
pulled  by  the  old-fashioned  oxen,  and  lots  of  old 
people  in  sleds.  They  had  brought  horse  feed  and 
grub  for  themselves.  They  were  all  sitting  around 
the  bridge,  scattered  upon  the  hill  under  the  beech 
trees  and  ivy  and  laurel,  and  about  10:50  the  work 
train  came.  She  was  making  speed  at  the  rate  of 
about  five  miles  per  hour,  and  when  the  engine  blew 


120  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whit  alter 

for  the  bridge  the  old  women  threw  their  pipes  down 
and  started  to  run,  also  many  of  the  twenty-year-old 
men  did  the  same  thing.  The  biggest  part  of  the 
horses  got  scared  and  run  away,  some  in  wagons  and 
some  in  sleds.  I  believe  that  was  the  biggest  day 
I  ever  saw  in  Letcher  County.  A  train  is  an  old  thing 
now.  I  can  only  call  to  my  memory  two  people  who 
have  never  seen  a  train  or  rode  on  one,  and  they  live 
in  about  five  miles  of  Blackey,  and  they  don't  want 
to  see  or  ride  on  it. 

There  have  been  many  changes  in  Letcher  County 
since  1911.  It  doesn't  seem  like  the  same  country. 
So  many  new  towns,  people  and  coal  companies.  We 
have  about  twenty  through  freights  daily  and  two 
locals  and  four  passengers,  except  on  Sundays,  and 
since  the  war  we  have  only  had  two  passenger  trains, 
for  the  purpose  of  saving  coal.  We  have  splendid 
passenger  service  and  have  some  of  the  kindest  and 
jolliest  passenger  conductors  in  the  whole  country, 
such  as  Spot  Combs,  who  was  born  at  Jackson, 
Breathitt  County. 

Spot  has  a  big  heart  and  you  will  always  find  him 
right.  Next  is  Conductor  Bradshaw,  who  has  al- 
ways been  all  right,  but  he  is  pretty  fat  to  get  about. 
He  has  only  one  son-in-law,  Dick  Davis,  who  can  get 
about  for  him,  and  Dick  says,  "A  man  who  has  a 
father-in-law  and  can't  use  him  just  as  well  as  have 
no  father-in-law."  Next-  is  Conductor  Atcherson, 
who  is  just  a  dandy.  He  is  a  slim  fellow  and  can  see 
anything  that  happens  on  his  train.  Then  comes  a 
small  fellow  with  a  few  freckles  on  his  face  and  a 
nice  railroad  smile,  who  is  ready  to  change  any  time 
if  required  to  and  can  suit  anybody.  They  call  him 
Conductor  Bocook. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  121 

I  will  say  with  nine  years  of  railroad  experience 
they  don't  make  any  nicer  conductors  than  the  ones 
whom  I  have  just  wrote  about.  Then  just  think  of 
that  bunch  of  extra  passenger  conductors,  Hop  Dan- 
iels, who  has  a  heart  as  big"  as  a  groundhog'  and  he 
does  his  work  just  like  Gen.  Pershing  does  his  job. 
Then  comes  Conductor  Short,  and  he  is  just  as  fat 
as  he  is  "Short."  He  can't  get  around  with  that  extra 
smile  on  like  Hop,  but  Short  can  get  over  the  road. 
Then .  comes  Conductor  Tommie  Hammons.  He 
doesn't  say  very  much  of  anything  to  anybody.  All 
he  does  is  just  look  at  his  time  card  from  the  time 
he  leaves  Lexington  until  he  gets  to  McRoberts,  and 
when  the  time  card  is  due  at  McRoberts  Conductor 
Hammons  is  there  "Johnnie  on  the  spot"  with  his 
train.  We  have  another  conductor  who  is  off  of  the 
L.  &  A.  and  holds  his  seniority  over  some  of  the 
boys.  The  traveling  public  say  they  can  tell 
just  as  soon  as  they  see  the  engine  when  Conductor 
Ills  is  on,  as  the  engine  begins  to  pop  off;  they  will 
know  Conductor  Ills  will  pop  next.  As  to  the  engi- 
neers on  passengers,  they  are  the  best,  and  the  flag- 
men are  just  a  nice  set  of  young  boys. 

There  are  only  a  very  few  more  of  the  good  old- 
fashioned  grandmas  left  in  Eastern  Kentucky  who 
hold    onto    the    old-fashioned    clothes    with  a  large 
pocket  tied  to  their  hip  to  carry  their  old-fashioned, 
pipe. 

In  the  above  picture  is  old  Grandmother  Hughes. 
She  was  Cleburn  Hicks'  daughter,  of  Russell  County, 
Virginia,  and  came  to  Kentucky  in  the  year  of  1866 
and  was  married'  to  Mr.  Hughes  by  David  Calhoun. 
Grandma  Hughes  is  now  eighty-nine  years  old  and 


122  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


washes  every  day  and  by  hard  work  has  saved  up 
over  $100  and  has  it  in  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Whitesburg,  Ky.,  to  take  care  of  her  when  she  gets 
so  old  she  can't  work.    Grandma  Hughes  joined  the 


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FRANKIE  HUGHES 
Grandmother  of  all 


old  Regular  Baptist  Church  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  years  and  has  kept  the  faith  ever  since.  Every- 
body, old  and  young,  loves  her. 

I  am  going  to  close  my  book  very  soon  and  I  want 
to  present  to  the  public  a  small  picture  of  my  four 
brothers,  whom  I  helped  to  educate.     The  first  two 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  123 

are  Gid  and  Jim  at  the  age  of  nine  and  seven.  Gid 
is  sitting  down  and  Jim  standing.  They  are  dressed 
up.  They  are  barefooted,  have  home-made  pants  and 
shirts.  You  can  see  from  the  picture  the  way  their 
hair  looked  and  tell  how  often  they  got  it  cut. 

This  tintype  picture  was  made  twenty-four  years 
ago.  My  idea  is  to  show  the  boys'  pictures  in  real  life 
when  they  lived  in  a  country  undeveloped,  no  rail- 
roads, no  business  of  any  kind,  and  then  I  will  show 
them  after  they  have  been  educated  and  through  col- 
lege. Both  city  and  country  life  and  Letcher  County 
have  grown  in  refinement  and  development  and  good 
morals  and  in  langauge  schools  and  religion,  as  the 
two  pictures  show. 

The  first  picture  is  Dr.  Gid  Whitaker,  of  Whites- 
burg,  Ky.,  who  is  a  successful  doctor  and  business 
man.  This  picture  was  taken  twenty-four  years  after 
the  first.  The  second  picture  is  Jim  Whitaker, 
wholesale  feed  man,  of  Blackey,  Ky.,  and  pastor  of 
the  Indian  Bottom  Church,  the  oldest  church  in 
Letcher  County,  which  was  founded  by  James  Dixon. 

I  will  now  present  to  you  a  tintype  picture  of  Little 
and  Less,  taken  the  same  time.  You  can  see  very 
plainly  how  mother  made  their  pants  and  shirts 
twenty-four  years  ago.  I  now  furnish  you  the  picture 
of  Dr.  Little  Whitaker,  of  Blackey,  Ky.,  who  is  a 
successful  doctor  and  coal  man.  Less,  when  a  boy, 
had  the  asthma,  and  mother  sent  him  West,  where 
he  was  cured.  I  will  present  to  you  the  photo  of 
Less  Whitaker,  who  is  Assessor  and  Tax  Collector 
of  Potter  County,  Texas,  on  the  Democratic  ticket 
and  a  real  successful  oil  man  in  Oklahoma. 


124 


History   of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


DR.  GID  WHITAKER 
Graduate  1912 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


125 


DR.  LITTLE  WHITAKER 
Graduate  1912 


126 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  127 

I  now  present  to  you  the  picture  of  my  family  on 
our  way  from  Blackey  to  Whitesburg  on  muleback 
to  take  charge  of  the  county  jail.  You  will  notice 
that  my  wife  is  leading  the  mule  and  my  four  chil- 
dren and  a  cousin  to  my  wife,  who  made  her  home 
with  us,  are  riding  on  the  mule  and  can  see  very 
plainly  the  Jailer  pushing  the  old  mule  along.  My 
wife  thinks  this  was  the  best  way  of  getting  to 
Whitesburg  and  she  knew  it  was  the  safest  way.  We 
sure  had  a  splendid  trip  over  the  land.  I  did  not  want 
to  go  over  the  land  on  muleback  and  push  a  mule 
that  far,  but  my  wife  said  that  it  would  be  all  right, 
that  I  would  soon  get  used  to  pushing  the  prisoners 
up  the  stairs  and  just  as  well  fall  in  line  now  and 
learn  how  to  push. 

My  wife's  cousin  is  now  married  to  F.  F.  Pendle- 
ton, who  is  time  and  bookkeeper  for  the  Smoot  Creek 
Coal  Company  at  Dalna,  Ky. 


SKETCH  OF  WORK  AND  WORDS  OF 
WOODROW  WILSON. 


N 


Opening  Statement. 

O  BOOK  is  hardly  complete  in  the  year  1918 
without  some  part  of  it  bearing  on  the  great 


PRESIDENT  WOODROW  WILSON 

world  war.  It  seems  perfectly  proper  to  give  a  few 
pages  here  to  that  subject  in  which  all  readers  are  of 
a  right  so  much  interested. 

The  writer  of  this  book  claims  to  be  as  loyal  as 
any  citizen  of  the  United  States  to  the  great  Govern- 
ment which  is  waging  war  with  all  its  might  on  the 
enemies  of  liberty.  He  claims  to  live  in  a  section  of 
the  country  where  all  the  people  have  always  felt  the 
same  way,  and  who  are  now  doing  a  noble  part  in 
this  nation's  biggest  task.  Letcher  County's  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  sent  to  the  colors  with  not  a  word 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  129 

of  murmur  from  its  citizens;  her  heavy  oversubscrip- 
tion of  every  quota  of  every  war  loan  and  charitable 
enterprise  connected  with  the  war;  her  great  con- 
tribution to  the  war  industries  of  the  nation  through 
her  millions  of  tons  of  "black  diamonds/'  and  the 
keen  interest  shown  in  every  phase  of  the  war  in 
every  part  of  the  county — all  these  things  go  to  prove 
that  the  people  who  wTill  read  this  book  are  as  loyal 
as  any  and  will  be  glad  to  have  something  about  the 
war,  along  with  the  other  things,  funny  and  serious, 
which  are  offered. 

When  people  in  every  part  of  the  country  are 
doing  so  much  to  carry  on  the  gigantic  enterprise  of 
the  war  it  is  but  natural  that  thev  should  ask,  if  not 
aloud,  then  deep  down  in  themselves,  the  reason  for 
it  all.  Why  must  the  war  go  on,  calling  for  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  lives  of  many  in  every  community,  and 
added  burdens  of  taxes,  war  loans  and  high  prices  of 
everything  used.  This  is  the  most  natural  of  ques- 
tions and  will  be  asked  countless  times  the  coming 
winter  and  spring  and  summer. 

The  writer  of  this  book  thinks  the  answer  can  be 
found  in  the  Work  and  Wrords  of  President  Wood- 
row  Wilson.  Therefore  he  takes  the  space  and 
trouble  to  offer  in  these  pages  the  facts  and  state- 
ments which  sum  up  the  matter,  as  he  sees  it. 


130  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Main  Facts  in  Life  of  Woodrow  Wilson. 

Woodrow  Wilson  was  born  sixty-two  years  ago  at 
Staunton,  Va.  He  came  of  fine  old  Virginia  stock. 
the  same  kind  which  came  across  the  mountains  into 
Kentucky  seventy-five  years  earlier. 

His  early  life  was  not  greatly  different  from  that 
of  many  others  of  the  same  class  of  people  who  were 
well  enough  off  to  give  their  children  a  good  educa- 
tion. The  people  among  whom  he  lived  were  cul- 
tured and  had  high  ideals  of  life,  so  that  he  got  a 
good  education,  graduating  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three  from  Princeton  College,  one  of  the  leading 
schools  of  the  country.  His  opportunities  were  good 
and  he  took  advantage  of  them  by  getting  an  educa- 
tion as  good  as  the  land  afforded. 

Being  of  a  studious  turn  of  mind,  he  pursued  his 
studies  further  after  his  graduation  at  the  leading 
universities  of  the  section,  specializing  in  the  study 
of  law,  the  science  of  government  and  the  great  prin- 
ciples by  which  man  lives  with  his  fellow  man.  Here 
wras  the  foundation  work  on  which  Woodrow  Wilson 
rose  to  being  the  leading  citizen  of  the  world  forty 
years  later. 

In  the  years  1882  and  1883  he  began  the  practice 
of  law  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  But  the  field  was  too  narrow 
and  he  soon  realized  that  he  was  by  nature  a  scholar 
and  interested  in  broader  fields  than  the  practicing 
of  the  profession  which  had  led  to  the  careers  of 
nearly  all  the  great  statesmen  up  to  that  time.  In 
the  period  embracing  the  next  twenty  years,  until  he 
was  well  up  in  the  forties,  his  time  was  spent  as  a 
teacher,  author  of  histories  and  books  on  govern- 
ment and  as  a  profound  student  of  American  affairs. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  131 

By  this  time  he  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing educators  of  the  whole  country  and  as  an 
authority  on  the  history  and  theory  of  government 
of  America,  the  leading  republic  of  the  world.  He 
was  chosen  head  of  Princeton  University  in  1902,  in 
which  position  he  remained  until  1910,  following  in 
general  the  same  lines  of  work  and  adding  further 
to  his  reputation  as  an  authority  on  state  affairs. 

Only  a  few  years  ago,  even  since  1900,  it  seemed 
that  our  Government  was  falling  more  and  more  into 
the  hands  of  the  politicians,  and  that  the  great  edu- 
cators of  the  land  were  missing  the  mark,  so  far  as 
their  work  concerned  practical  things.  Men  like 
Woodrow  Wilson  at  Princeton  University  were 
thought  all  right  as  school  men  and  authors,  but  too 
flighty  and  theoretical  for  governmental  affairs. 
Now  that  is  all  changed  in  America,  and  the  story  of 
Woodrow  Wilson's  entry  into  public  life  and  his 
undisputed  success  is  the  story  of  that  change. 

In  the  years  before  1910  the  State  of  New  Jersey 
was  generally  known  as  the  home  of  corrupt  politics 
and  of  rich  corporations  which  wished  to  escape  the 
law  for  their  evil  practices.  For  a  long  time  the  Re- 
publican party  had  been  in  charge  of  affairs.  With 
the  hope  of  winning  the  State  election  the  Democrats 
nominated  Professor  Wilson,  not  because  thev 
wanted  him  especially,  but  because  it  would  appeal 
to  the  people  strongly  to  vote  for  a  man  who  was  not 
a  politician  and  against  whom  not  a  word  could  be 
said.  Though  New  Jersey  is  normally  Republican 
by  some  thousands  of  votes,  Wilson  was  elected,  and 
the  experiment  of  having  a  man  with  no  political 
experience  in  the  highest  office  of  the  State  was  on. 


132  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

All  the  Nation  watched  to  see  what  would  happen 
— whether  the  professor's  bookish  ideas  would  work 
out  in  a  State  where  there  were  many  great  problems 
for  the  Governor  to  deal  with.  By  the  hardest  kind 
of  work  and  most  careful  treatment  of  each  of  the 
problems  which  came  up  for  settlement,  fitting  each 
to  great  principles  which  were  worked  out  years  be- 
fore, he  made  a  record  which  the  people  of  his  State 
and  the  people  of  the  whole  country  generally  de- 
cided was  good.  It  was  granted  that  the  Wilson 
ideas  would  work — in  a  State. 

The  spring  of  1912  brought  the  campaigns  for 
nominations  for  President.  There  was  the  big  con- 
test in  the  Republican  party  between  President  Taft 
and  ex-President  Roosevelt,  representing  the  "Stand 
Pat"  and  "Progressive"  wings,  respectively.  At  the 
National  Convention  Taft  was  nominated,  bringing 
the  split,  when  Roosevelt  and  his  followers  drew 
apart  and  founded  a  new  party. 

When  the  Democratic  convention  came  on  a  good 
campaign  had  been  made  for  the  nomination  of  Wil- 
son, but  he  lacked  some  hundreds  of  sufficient  dele- 
gates to  nominate.  Then  followed  a  long  deadlock 
in  the  voting,  no  candidate  having  enough  votes  to 
nominate  him.  William  Jennings  Bryan  turned  the 
tide  at  the  critical  moment,  contending  that  the  party 
must  nominate  a  man  unmistakably  progressive  in 
his  ideas,  or  be  defeated  by  Roosevelt  in  November. 
The  Democrats  were  hardly  willing  to  offer  the  Pro- 
fessor to  the  Nation,  whatever  his  record  in  New 
Jersey,  and  besides  there  were  strong  elements  in  the 
party  bitterly  opposed  to  Wilson  or  any  other  man 
known   as   a   reformer   and   progressive.     But    there 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  133 

seemed  nothing  else  to  do,  and  Bryan's  advice  pre- 
vailed— Wilson  was  offered  to  the  Nation,  with  just 
two  years  of  actual  experience  in  governmental 
affairs,  that  in  a  small  State!  It  was  a  thing  hardly 
to  be  believed,  without  parallel  in  American  history! 

The  election  of  Woodrow  Wilson  was  easy,  be- 
cause of  his  getting  more  votes  than  either  Taft  or 
Roosevelt  in  most  of  the  States,  though  he  lacked 
more  than  a  million  of  getting  half  the  popular  votes. 
His  electoral  majority  was  greater  than  that  received 
by  a  President  since  Monroe. 

Everyone  is  familiar  with  the  events  in  the  life  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  since  he  was  elected  President  in 
1912,  and  only  the  matters  of  greatest  importance  in 
bringing  him  into  the  position  of  head  of  the  affairs 
of  the  world  will  be  mentioned  briefly  under  the  next 
head. 

Woodrow  Wilson  as  President. 

In  practice  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  run  by  the  party  in  power,  and  in  theory  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  is  the  head  of  the  majority 
party.  Such  being  the  facts,  it  is  the  first  task  of  a 
new  President  to  line  up  the  support  of  his  own 
party.  The  only  other  Democratic  President  since 
the  Civil  War  had  failed  utterly  in  this  respect  and 
made  a  poorer  record  than  the  real  ability  of  the  man 
led  the  people  to  expect. 

Many  people  wondered  if  Wilson  could  control 
the  discordant  elements  in  his  own  party  after  he 
took  office,  or  if  he  would  fail  right  at  the  beginning, 
as  did  Cleveland.  But  the  doubters  did  not  have  to 
wait  long.     Wilson's  study  of  our  system  of  govern- 


134  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

ment  taught  him  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  is  the  head  of  the  party  which  elects  him,  just 
as  much  as  he  is  President,  and  that  all  other  loyal 
members  of  that  party  must  support  him  on  matters 
to  which  the  party  is  pledged,  whether  it  suits  the 
particular  tastes  of  any  individual  officer  or  not.  He 
was  careful  to  make  it  clear  at  the  very  beginning 
that  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed  in  the  elec- 
tion of  1912  should  be  attained  through  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  then  in  power,  and  that  he  would  carry 
the  case  of  any  man  who  withheld  his  support  in 
making  good  those  pledges  back  to  his  own  people. 

Wilson  declared  that  the  Constitution  made  him 
the  head  of  the  executive  department  of  the  Govern- 
ment, but  that  through  the  practical  working  out  of 
our  governmental  system  he  was  responsible  for  the 
acts  of  the  legislative  branch  also,  as  the  head  of  the 
party  in  power.  In  that  sense  he  was  the  head  of  the 
legislative  as  well  as  the  executive  department.  From 
the  day  he  took  office  and  called  Congress  into 
special  session  to  revise  the  tariff  he  has  taken  a  lead- 
ing part  in  all  legislation.  It  has  become  almost  a 
proverb  in  this  country  now  to  speak  of  him  as  the 
schoolmaster  holding  the  rod  over  the  heads  of  the 
school  of  Congress. 

His  first  experience  is  typical  of  all  the  others  in 
dealing  with  Congress.  The  Democrats  were  pledged 
to  reduce  the  tariff  to  the  basis  of  producing  revenue 
only.  But  when  Congress  started  working  each 
member  figured  only  for  the  direct  interests  of  him- 
self and  his  little  district,  and  there  followed  the  end- 
less little  bargains  and  swapping  of  support,  the  old 
"log-rolling"  business.     It  was  the  same  thing  which 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  135 

happened  under  Taft  in  1909,  when  the  Republicans, 
pledged  to  lower  the  tariff,  actually  raised  it  by  try- 
ing to  listen  to  the  pleas  of  each  interest  which 
wanted  a  particular  item  raised.  Wilson  called  a 
halt.  He  said  each  Democrat  must  work  to  lower 
the  whole  tariff  to  the  basis  promised  the  people, 
which  could  not  be  done  if  each  fellow  held  to  his 
own  pet  schedule,  and  that  if  they  did  not  follow  his 
advice  the  name  of  each  Congressman  who  was  to 
blame  for  the  failure  should  be  made  known  to  the 
remotest  nook  of  the  country.  It  worked;  nearly  all 
opposition  passed  away,  and  a  fairly  satisfactory 
downward  revision  was  finally  made.  The  Demo- 
crats who  opposed  Wilson  to  the  end  are  now  occu- 
pying positions  in  private  life. 

It  was  so  with  the  money  legislation,  railroad  regu- 
lation, the  trust  problem  and  all  the  other  many  prob- 
lems which  came  up  under  Wilson's  first  Congress, 
so  that  when  the  two  years  were  over  a  real  attempt 
had  been  made  to  enact  laws  covering  every  pledge 
in  1912.  To  this  day  there  has  been  only  one  failure 
to  have  a  recommendation  of  Woodrow  Wilson 
enacted  into  law,  that  the  submission  of  the  woman 
suffrage  amendment,  by  the  narrowest  of  margins; 
and  even  that  will  probably  be  passed  before  this 
book  is  read.  It  is  a  record  for  getting  laws  passed 
that  no  other  President,  not  even  Roosevelt,  has 
equaled. 

At  the  beginning  of  Wilson's  administration  the 
vexing  problem  of  Mexico,  then  in  a  state  of  revolu- 
tion and  anarchy,  was  a  big  problem.  Wilson  did 
not  follow  the  advice  of  those  who  wanted  to  annex 
Mexico,  nor  of  the  others  who  said  we  must  keep  our 


136  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

hands  strictly  off.  He  took  the  position  that  the 
United  States  must  deal  with  the  problem  or  the 
European  nations  would,  but  held  that  Mexico 
should  be  allowed  to  work  out  her  own  affairs  as  far 
as  possible.  He  proposed  that  friendly  help  of  the 
great  nation  just  to  the  north  be  extended,  and  even 
proper  chastisement  if  she  did  not  respect  our  rights 
and  property  on  the  border,  but  that  we  should  take 
the  smallest  actual  part  in  Mexican  affairs  to  protect 
our  own  interests  and  insure  respect  for  our  efforts 
by  other  interested  nations.  For  the  rest  he  adopted 
the  plan  of  waiting  for  Mexico  to  act,  thereby  gain- 
ing for  his  policy  the  name,  well  known  at  the  time, 
of  "watchful  waiting."  Time  has  shown  the  wisdom 
of  that  policy,  even  if  we  did  have  to  send  a  military 
and  naval  expedition  into  Mexico  and  still  have  to 
keep  a  guard  on  the  border,  while  Mexico  herself 
brings  order  out  of  her  confusion. 

The  problems  referred  to  briefly  in  the  above  para- 
graphs were  enough  to  make  a  full  program  for  a 
President,  but  with  the  breaking  of  the  world  war  in 
Europe  in  1914,  all  American  questions  became  more 
or  less  connected,  for  every  nation  of  the  world  in 
the  Twentieth  Century  is  pretty  closely  connected 
with  every  other.  The  question  with  us  in  the 
autumn  of  1914  was  how  to  carry  on  our  affairs  and 
not  become  involved  in  the  war,  which  we  looked 
upon  as  belonging  to  Europe.  This  was  Wilson's 
problem  as  the  head  of  a  great  peace-loving  nation. 

Again  our  leader  lived  up  to  his  policy  of  avoiding 
international  entanglements  so  much  that  his 
"watchful  waiting"  reputation  grew.  He  insisted 
that  the  warring    nation    should    fully    respect   our 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  137 

rights  as  the  most  powerful  neutral  nation,  and  sent 
endless  notes,  messages  and  reasonable  demands  to 
both  Great  Britain  and  Germany.  Often  the  results 
were  slow  to  appear,  but  always  the  offender  made 
full  satisfaction.  Most  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  came  to  believe  that  Wilson  could  go  on 
seeing  that  we  got  our  rights  and  still  keep  us  out  of 
the  war.  This  was  through  the  years  1914,  1915  and 
1916. 

One  incident,  the  sinking  of  the  British  steamer 
Lusitania  in  May,  1915,  with  many  prominent  Amer- 
ican citizens  lost,  came  nearest  to  upsetting  the  peace 
program.  But  Germany  apologized,  promised  to 
make  amends  and  changed  her  policy  toward  us  for 
the  rest  of  1915  and  1916.  Many  people  of  America 
thought  we  should  go  to  war  at  once  when  this  ves- 
sel was  sunk  on  the  high  seas,  but  Wilson  and  the 
majority  decided  it  was  better  to  wait.  We  have  no 
way  to  know  how  Wilson  really  felt  about  the  mat- 
ter at  the  time,  but  time  has  shown  that  the  Amer- 
ican people  were  not  ready  to  go  into  the  great  war 
at  that  time,  and  as  the  leader  of  the  Nation  it  would 
have  been  folly  for  him  to  force  us  in.  Democratic 
nations  do  not  make  war  so. 

The  election  of  1916  came  on.  Wilson  was  the 
proven  leader  of  the  Democrats  and  was  given  the 
nomination  by  acclamation  in  the  most  harmonious 
convention  the  party  ever  held,  for  he  was  the  candi- 
date and  the  molder  of  the  issues  at  the  same  time. 
The  breach  in  the  Republican  party  was  partially 
bridged  over  and  Justice  Hughes  was  chosen  to 
oppose  Wilson.  The  two  issues  in  the  campaign 
became  Wilson's  record  and  the  attitude  toward  the 


138  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


great  war.  Not  much  could  be  made  of  the  opposi- 
tion in  attacking  Wilson's  home-affairs  record,  and 
the  main  issue  became  the  war  question.  In  the  light 
of  the  prominent  part  Wilson  is  now  taking  in  the 
pushing  of  the  world's  greatest  war,  it  seems  strange 
that  he  wa^s  regarded  as  a  pacifist  just  two  years  ago. 
But  such  was  the  case.  Probably  enough  people 
believed  he  would  and  could  keep  us  out  of  the  war 
to  elect  him.  On  the  other  hand  there  were  the  many 
who  saw  no  chance  for  us  to  keep  out  and  were  afraid 
of  him  as  a  war  leader. 

But  as  Woodrow  Wilson  was  great  as  leader  of  a 
peaceful  nation  while  neutral,  so  when  America 
became  a  belligerent  he  became  at  once  the  foremost 
of  war  statesmen.  No  greater  tribute  could  be  paid 
him  than  to  say  he  has  been  the  voice  of  over  a  hun- 
dred million  people  both  in  peace,  and  when  peace 
was  no  longer  endurable,  in  making  war. 

When  Germany  announced  her  unlimited  sub- 
marine war  the  last  of  January,  1917,  on  neutrals  and 
enemies  alike,  it  was  plain  that  she  no  longer  re- 
spected our  rights,  but  was  bent  on  conquering  the 
world,  including  America,  by  her  brute  force.  The 
patience  of  America  was  exhausted  and  she  aroused 
from  her  peace  sleep.  Woodrow  Wilson,  their 
chosen  leader,  must  have  felt  the  insult  and  threat 
more  deeply  than  the  rest,  for  had  he  not  labored  to 
his  utmost  for  two  and  a  half  long  years  to  avoid  the 
war  for  America?  It  is  true  he  went  steadilv  on  with 
his  diplomatic  moves  to  do  what  he  could,  but  to 
Wilson  and  America  it  was  plain,  from  the  day  the 
submarines  went  on  the  high  seas  to  kill  guilty  and 
innocent  alike  and  the  German   Minister  at  Wash- 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  139 

ington  was  sent  home,  that  it  was  only  a  matter  of 
weeks  until  we  would  be  one  of  a  set  of  peace-loving 
nations  in  a  war-mad  world  striking  blows  for  our- 
selves when  other  means  had  failed. 

As  America  was  the  greatest  force  in  the  world 
not  already  in  the  war,  the  nations  allied  against 
Germany  welcomed  her  to  them  in  their  time  of  great 
need.  As  the  leader  of  America  Wilson  was  given 
the  opportunity  to  stand  with  the  highest  in  Allied 
councils.  But  his  record  in  America  had  already 
marked  him  as  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  world, 
and  he  was  not  long  in  proving  he  measured  up  to 
the  best  in  Europe.  Almost  from  the  day  he  entered 
the  war  Wilson  has  been  the  spokesman  for  the 
Allied  world.  He  speaks  and  they  approve,  because 
he  speaks  the  essence  of  democracy  and  freedom  for 
which  the  world  is  fighting.  His  voice  is  the  loudest 
in  the  world! 

We  are  coming  now  to  the  purpose  of  this  sketch, 
to  answer  the  real  questioning  of  the  average  Amer- 
ican citizen,  particularly  of  the  mountains  of  Ken- 
tucky, about  the  great  war,  in  the  words  of  Presi- 
dent Wilson.  From  this  sketch  we  can  see  how  he 
as  a  student  of  men  and  governments  rose  to  the 
highest  success  in  American  affairs.  The  American 
ideal  of  government,  a  government  of  the  people,  is 
about  to  become  the  ideal  of  the  civilized  world.  The 
words  of  Woodrow  Wilson  about  the  war  and  its 
purposes,  as  the  spokesman  for  the  civilized  world 
and  a  product  of  democracy,  will  make  clear  what  it 
is  all  about  and  what  we  are  to  get  in  return  for  our 
sacrifices. 


140  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

Several  selections  from  his  war  utterances,  with  a 
few  notes  of  explanation  of  time  and  circumstances, 
will  follow  in  the  next  division. 

Extracts  From  Wilson's  War  Speeches. 

There  were  many  strong  statements  by  President 
Wilson  before  the  war  began  defining  America's 
position  and  the  aims  she  held  dear.  For  lack  of 
space  we  do  not  give  any  of  them  here,  but  come  to 
the  more  striking  ones  after  the  war  began. 

In  the  light  of  what  has  taken  place  we  know  now 
that  it  was  never  possible  for  America  to  stay  per- 
manently out  of  the  world  war,  and  perhaps  no  one 
knew  this  better  than  our  President.  But  he  and  we 
hoped  that  while  we  were  at  peace  we  might  remain 
peaceful,  not  in  any  sense  dodging  our  duty  if  na- 
tional honor  called  us.  It  should  be  "peace  at  any 
price,  except  the  price  of  dishonor." 

But  when  it  became  clear  beyond  a  doubt  that  we 
must  go  to  war  with  the  enemy  of  freedom  and 
civilization,  President  Wilson  called  Congress  into 
special  session  and  told  them  in  no  uncertain  terms 
that  we  must  take  the  step.  He  was  no  longer  a 
pacifist  at  the  head  of  a  peaceful  people,  but  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  an  aroused  and  militant  American 
manhood.  The  closing  paragraph  of  his  address  to 
Congress,  April  2,  1917,  ranks  with  the  best  oratory 
of  the  world,  yet  states  America's  position.  It  fol- 
lows: 

.  "It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  lead  this  great  peaceful 
people  into  war,  into  the  most  terrible  and  disastrous 
of  all  wars,  civilization  itself  seeming  to  be  in  the  bal- 
ance.   But  the  right  is  more  precious  than  peace,  and 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  141 

we  shall  fight  for  the  things  which  we  have  always 
carried  nearest  our  hearts — for  democracy,  for  the 
right  of  those  who  submit  to  authority  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  own  governments — for  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion  of 
right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring 
peace  and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make  the  world 
itself  at  last  free.  To  such  a  task  we  can  dedicate 
our  lives  and  fortunes,  everything  that  we  are  and 
everything  that  we  have,  with  the  pride  of  those  who 
know  that  the  day  has  come  when  America  is  privi- 
leged to  spend  her  blood  and  her  might  for  the  prin- 
ciples that  gave  her  birth  and  happiness  and  the 
peace  which  she  has  treasured.  God  helping  her,  she 
can  do  no  other." 

Perhaps  there  are  those  who  think  we  still  might 
have  remained  neutral  by  humbling  ourselves  a  little, 
which  would  have  been  better  than  the  awful  de- 
struction of  the  war,  by  acting  as  some  of  the  small 
nations  of  Europe  have  acted,  we  might  have  kept 
out.  Perhaps  we  might  have  withdrawn  our  ships 
from  the  high  seas,  which  belong  as  much  to  us  as 
to  any  nation,  and  kept  all  our  citizens  at  home,  thus 
avoiding  the  war.  This  is  the  rallying  ground  of  all 
the  pacifists. 

To  do  so  would  have  taken  the  strongest  nation  of 
the  world  out  of  any  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
which  is  preposterous  on  the  face  of  it.  Then  as 
surely  as  Germany  conquered  France  and  Great 
Britain,  which  now  seems  must  have  taken  place  in 
1918  but  for  the  help  of  America,  she  would  have 
taken  charge  of  our  helpless  and  peaceful  country  as 
the  greatest  reservoir  of  wealth  and  raw  material  in 


142  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

the  world.  For  Germany  was  determined  to  con- 
quer the  world — let  there  be  no  mistake  about  that. 
As  we  went  to  the  war  for  the  principles  we  held 
dear,  so  we  had  to  meet  Germany  with  a  force  greater 
than  her  own,  the  only  thing  under  the  sun  that  could 
stop  that  war-mad  nation,  bent  on  conquest.  Hear 
President  Wilson  on  this  point  in  his  speech  launch- 
ing the  Third  Liberty  Loan  at  Baltimore,  April  6, 
1918,  for  no  one  has  put  the  point  stronger  than  he: 

"I  accept  Germany's  challenge.  I  know  that  you 
accept  it.  All  the  world  shall  know  that  you  accept 
it.  It  shall  appear  in  the  utter  sacrifice  and  self-for- 
getfulness  with  which  we  shall  give  all  that  we  love 
and  all  that  we  have  to  redeem  the  world  and  make 
it  fit  for  free  men  like  ourselves  to  live  in.  This  now 
is  the  meaning  of  all  that  we  do.  Let  everything  that 
we  say,  my  fellow-countrymen,  everything  that  we 
henceforth  plan  and  accomplish,  ring  true  to  this 
response  till  the  majesty  and  might  of  our  concerted 
power  shall  fill  the  thought  and  utterly  defeat  the 
force  of  those  who  flout  and  misprize  what  we  honor 
and  hold  dear.  Germany  has  said  that  force,  and 
force  alone,  shall  decide  whether  justice  and  peace 
shall  reign  in  the  affairs  of  men,  whether  Right  as 
America  conceives  it  or  Dominion  as  she  conceives  it 
shall  determine  the  destinies  of  mankind.  There  is, 
therefore,  but  one  response  possible  from  us:  Force,, 
force  to  the  utmost,  force  without  stint  or  limit,  the 
righteous  and  triumphant  force  which  shall  make 
Right  the  law  of  the  world  and  cast  every  selfish 
dominion  down  in  the  dust." 

But  it  is  well  to  state  the  precise  aims  for  which 
we  are  fighting,  and  the  satisfaction  of  which  would 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  143 

bring  peace  from  us.  In  general  we  are  fighting  for 
the  American  principles  of  freedom  and  justice  and 
are  combating  Germany's  force  with  greater  force 
as  a  means  of  self-protection.  But  there  is  the  bigger 
program  of  applying  these  principles  to  world  affairs, 
so  that  all  nations  and  peoples  shall  be  free  and  live 
in  peace  after  the  war  is  over  forever.  But  the  case 
can  be  stated  more  precisely  than  this. 

As  the  spokesman  for  the  nations  allied  against 
Germany,  President  Wilson  announced  fourteen 
terms  on  which  we  would  be  willing  to  make  peace 
last  winter.  Six  of  them  have  to  do  with  general 
conditions  which  will  apply  to  all  nations  alike: 
freedom  of  the  seas,  reduction  of  armies,  open 
treaties,  equal  trade  conditions  for  all  nations, 
colonial  claims,  and  a  league  to  enforce  peace  and 
settle  disputes  between  nations.  The  other  eight 
provide  for  changes  in  boundaries  or  governments, 
one  or  both,  in  France,  Belgium,  Italy,  Germany, 
Austria,  Turkey,  Russia,  Poland,  and  the  Balkan 
States  on  a  basis  of  freedom  and  justice  to  the  people 
of  each  country.  It  is  the  program  on  which  peace 
will  finally  be  made  and  guarantees  that  the  "world 
will  be  made  safe  for  democracy."  The  program  is 
too  long  to  state  here  in  its  original  form. 

Many  times  later  Wilson  has  made  further  state- 
ments bearing  on  our  war  aims.  Some  of  these  state- 
ments are  brief  and  clear  enough  to  be  put  down  here, 
since  they  are  another  way  of  stating  the  fourteen 
peace  conditions.  In  addressing  Congress  February 
11,  1918,  the  President  said  they  could  be  put  under 
four  heads,  as  follows : 


144  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

"First — Each  part  of  the  final  settlement  must  be 
based  upon  essential  justice  to  bring  a  permanent 
peace. 

"Second — Peoples  and  provinces  are  not  to  be  bar- 
tered about  like  chattels  to  establish  a  balance  of 
power. 

"Third — Territorial  settlements  must  be  for  the 
benefit  of  the  peoples  concerned  and  not  for  the  ad- 
justment of  rival  States'  claims. 

"Fourth — Well-defined  national  aspirations  must 
be  accorded  the  utmost  satisfaction." 

At  no  time  has  the  President  made  a  finer  state- 
ment of  the  issues  involved  in  the  war  than  in  his 
speech  of  September  27,  1918,  in  opening"  the  Fourth 
Liberty  Loan  at  New  York.  It  must  be  quoted  some- 
what at  length,  with  the  idea  that  it  is  a  further 
definition  and  application  of  the  fourteen  terms  of 
peace.     It  can  best  be  given  in  Wilson's  own  words: 

"We  accept  the  issues  of  the  war  as  facts,  not  as 
any  group  of  men  here  or  elsewhere  has  defined  them, 
and  we  cannot  accept  any  outcome  which  does  not 
squarely  meet  and  settle  them.    The  issues  are  these: 

"  'Shall  the  military  power  of  any  nation  or  group 
of  nations  be  suffered  to  determine  the  fortunes  of 
peoples  over  whom  they  have  no  right  to  rule,  except 
the  right  of  force? 

"  'Shall  strong  nations  be  free  to  wrong  weak  na- 
tions and  make  them  subject  to  their  purpose  and 
interest? 

"  'Shall  peoples  be  ruled  and  dominated,  even  in 
their  own  internal  affairs,  by  arbitrary  and  irrespon- 
sible force  or  by  their  own  will  and  choice? 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life 


145 


"  'Shall  there  be  a  common  standard  of  right  and 
privilege  for  all  peoples  and  nations,  or  shall  the 
strong  do  as  they  will  and  the  weak  suffer  without 
redress? 

"  'Shall  the  assertion  of  right  be  haphazard  and  by 
casual  alliance,  or  shall  there  be  a  common  concert 
to  oblige  the  observance  of  common  rights?' 

"But  these  general  terms  do  not  disclose  the  whole 
matter.  Some  details  are  needed  to  make  them  sound 
less  like  a  thesis  and  more  like  a  practical  program. 
These,  then,  are  some  of  the  particulars,  and  I  state 
them  with  greater  confidence  .because  I  can  state 
them  authoritatively  as  representing  this  Govern- 
ment's interpretation  of  its  own  duty  with  regard  to 
peace: 

"  'First — The  impartial  justice  meted  out  must 
involve  no  discrimination.  It  must  be  a  justice  that 
plays  no  favorites  and  knows  no  standard  but  the 
equal  rights  of  all  the  peoples  concerned. 

"  'Second — No  special  or  separate  interest  of  any 
single  nation  or  any  group  of  nations  can  be  made 
a  basis  of  any  part  of  the  settlement  which  is  not  con- 
sistent with  the  common  interests  of  all. 

"  'Third — There  shall  be  no  leagues  or  alliance  or 
special  covenants  and  understandings  with  the  gen- 
eral and  common  family  of  the  league  of  nations. 

"  'Fourth — There  shall  be  no  special,  selfish  com- 
binations in  the  leag'ue,  except  as  penalty  by  exclu- 
sion from  the  markets  of  the  world  may  be  vested  in 
the  league  of  nations  itself,  as  a  means  of  discipline 
and  control. 


146  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

"  'Fifth — All  international  treaties  and  agreements 
of  any  kind  must  be  made  known,  in  their  entirety, 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.'  " 

President  Wilson  has  repeatedly  laid  emphasis  on 
the  statement  that  this  is  a  war  of  the  people  for  uni- 
versal human  rights,  as  much  as  a  war  of  nations  for 
national  ends.  Notice  this  extract  from  the  same 
September  27,  1918,  address  at  New  York: 

"This  war  has  positive  and  well-defined  purposes 
which  we  did  not  determine  and  which  we  cannot 
alter.  No  statesman  or  assembly  created  them;  no 
statesman  or  assembly  can  alter  them.  They  have 
arisen  out  of  the  very  nature  and  circumstances  of 
the  war.  The  most  that  statesmen  or  assemblies  can 
do  is  to  carry  them  out  or  be  false  to  them.  They 
were  perhaps  not  clear  at  the  outset,  but  they  are 
clear  now. 

"The  war  has  lasted  more  than  four  years  and  the 
world  has  been  drawn  into  it.  The  common  will  of 
mankind  has  been  substituted  for  the  particular  pur- 
poses of  individual  States.  Individual  statesmen  may 
have  started  the  conflict,  but  neither  they  nor  their 
opponents  can  stop  it  as  they  please.  It  has  become 
a  people's  war,  and  peoples  of  all  sorts  and  races,  of 
every  degree  of  power  and  variety  of  fortune,  are 
involved  in  its  sweeping  processes  of  change  and 
settlement." 

President  Wilson  has  repeatedly  taken  the  stand 
that  all  autocratic  rule  by  a  king  or  small  group  of 
men  must  end  in  every  country  as  a  necessary  result 
of  this  war.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Kaiser  and  his 
little  group  of  army  leaders  educated,  armed  and 
trained  Germany  to  conquer  the  world  through  forty 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  147 

long  years,  and  then  deliberately  set  in  motion  the 
war  machine  they  had  created  in  the  summer  of  1914. 
Our  President  says  as  a  necessary  term  of  peace  that 
all  possibility  of  such  a  thing  ever  happening  again 
must  be  removed  by  blotting  out  the  cause.  Among 
other  results  to  be  attained  before  there  can  be  a 
peace,  there  is  this  remarkable  statement,  in  a 
patriotic  address  at  Mt.  Vernon,  July  4,  1918: 

"The  destruction  of  every  arbitrary  power  any- 
where that  can  separately,  secretly  and  of  its  single 
choice  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world;  or,  if  it  cannot 
be  presently  destroyed,  at  the  least,  its  reduction  to 
virtual  powerlessness." 

The  above  statements  of  terms  are  ample  and 
cover  all  the  points  which  may  arise  out  of  the  war. 
There  has  been  repeated  and  free  discussion  of  them 
in  this  country  and  Europe,  and  Mr.  Wilson  himself 
has  not  lost  an  opportunity  to  explain  their  meaning 
in  his  own  matchless  way.  There  is  now  no  doubt 
of  their  meaning  or  that  the  United  States  will 
struggle  for  them  until  they  are  facts.  Yet  out  of 
them  arises  a  big  question  as  to  the  length  of  the  war. 

As  early  as  February,  1918,  Germany  announced 
that  she  could  accept  the  fourteen  principles  laid 
down  by  Wilson  in  the  address  of  February  11.  Many 
other  times  since  Germany  has  intimated  that  she 
could  accept  the  Wilson  terms  and  was  ready  to  open 
negotiations  leading  to  peace.  These  hints  have  been 
many  since  the  war  turned  for  the  Allies  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1918.    Yet  no  negotiations  have  been  entered 


148 


History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 


into  up  to  the  middle  of  October,  1918,  as  this  is  fin- 
ished. Many  may  wonder  why  there  was  not  peace 
when  the  enemy  is  ready  to  discuss  with  us  our  own 
announced  terms.  Wilson  himself  has  answered  on 
this  point  many  times,  most  strikingly  in  his  answer 
to  the  Pope's  offer  to  make  peace  in  August,  1917, 
and  in  the  address  of  September  27,  1918.  The  fol- 
lowing is  quoted  from  the  latter  address: 

"We  are  all  agreed  that  there  can  be  no  peace  ob- 
tained by  any  kind  of  bargain  or  compromise  with 
the  governments  of  Germany  and  her  allies,  because 
we  have  dealt  with  them  already,  and  have  seen  them 
deal  with  Russia  and  Rumania.  They  have  convinced 
us  that  they  are  without  honor  and  do  not  intend 
justice.  They  observe  no  covenants,  accept  no  prim 
ciple  but  force  and  their  own  interest.  We  cannot 
'come  to  terms'  with  them.  They  have  made  it  im- 
possible. The  German  people  must  by  this  time  be 
fully  aware  that  we  cannot  accept  the  word  of  those 
who  forced  this  war  upon  us.  We  do  not  think  the 
same  thoughts  or  speak  the  same  language  of  agree- 
ment. 

"It  is  of  capital  importance  that  we  should  also  be 
explicitly  agreed  that  no  peace  shall  be  obtained  by 
any  kind  of  compromise  or  lessening  of  the  princi- 
ples which  we  have  avowed  as  the  principles  for 
which  we  are  lighting.  There  should  exist  no  doubt 
about  that." 

Finally  on  October  12,  1918,  Germany  sent  a 
message  to  President  Wilson  saying  they  were  will- 
ing to  accept  all    the    terms  he  had  laid    down,  and 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  149 

asked  that  he  take  the  matter  up  with  the  Allies  and 
arrange  with  German  representatives  the  terms  of  an 
armistice  to  stop  the  fighting  while  peace  was  being 
made.  This  has  always  been  the  regular  procedure, 
and  coming  from  any  nation  but  Germany  would 
have  meant  that  the  war  was  over.  President  Wil- 
son immediately  answered  the  proposal,  and  never 
has  he  spoken  with  greater  power  or  clearness  than 
when  speaking  straight  to  the  arch-enemy  for  the 
first  time  since  war  started.  If  he  had  not  estab- 
lished himself  long  ago  as  the  champion  spokesman 
for  the  liberty  of  mankind,  this  message  would  give 
him  the  place.  The  three  main  points  are  here  given, 
but  the  writer  has  taken  the  liberty  to  add  the  num- 
bers and  put  them  in  different  order: 

1.  "The  President's  word  just  quoted  (the  extract 
from  the  Mt.  Vernon  speech  quoted  above)  naturally 
constitutes  a  condition  precedent  to  peace,  if  peace  is 
to  come  by  the  action  of  the  German  people  them- 
selves. The  President  feels  bound  to  say  that  the 
whole  process  of  peace  will,  in  his  judgment,  depend 
upon  the  definiteness  and  the  satisfactory  character  of 
the  guarantees  which  can  be  given  in  this  funda- 
mental matter." 

2.  "It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  the  process 
of  evacuation  (of  territory  Germany  had  conquered) 
and  the  conditions  of  an  armistice  are  matters  which 
must  be  left  to  the  judgment  and  advice  of  the  mili- 
tary advisers  of  the  United  States  and  the  allied  gov- 
ernments, and  the  President  feels  it  his  duty  to  say 
that  no  arrangement  can  be  accepted  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  which  does  not  provide 


150  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

absolutely  satisfactory  safeguards  and  guarantees  of 
the  maintenance  of  the  present  military  supremacy 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Allies  on  the  field." 

3.  "The  President  also  feels  that  it  is  his  duty  to 
add  that  neither  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
nor,  he  is  quite  sure,  the  governments  associated 
with  the  United  States,  will  consent  to  consider  an 
armistice  so  long  as  the  armed  forces  of  Germany 
continue  the  illegal  and  inhumane  practices  which 
they  still  persist  in." 

It  cannot  be  known  surely  what  the  outcome  may 
be  when  this  is  being  finished,  but  it  is  plain  that 
President  Wilson  decreed  the  end  of  the  Kaiser  and 
his  wicked  system,  demanded  a  surrender  such  that 
Germany  could  never  make  war  again  and  in  which 
she  had  no  part  in  the  arrangement,  and  served 
notice  on  them  once  for  all  that  they  must  stop  their 
hellish  practices  in  the  lands  they  held  captive,  infer- 
ring that  punishment  would  be  meted  to  them  for 
what  had  already  been  done. 

Whether  they  submit  now  or  a  month  from  now 
or  a  year  from  now  the  terms  of  peace  are  known, 
and  they  exist  in  the  words  of  our  own  President 
Wilson.  The  end  of  the  old  German  system  is  at 
hand,  and  the  reign  of  peace  in  a  world  of  freedom 
is  just  ahead.  America  and  her  brave  Allies,  at  the 
price  of  the  blood  of  their  millions  of  young  men, 
have  put  right  and  justice  in  a  free  and  peaceful 
world  as  the  rule  by  which  nations  must  live  in  the 
future,  and  Woodrow  Wilson  has  translated  that 
ideal  into  burning  words  which  will  live  forever. 


Kentucky  Mountain  Life  151 

An  Estimate  of  Wilson  as  a  Statesman. 

As  Woodrow  Wilson  has  already  proven  a  tower 
of  strength  in  the  time  of  the  world's  greatest  need, 
his  opportunities  for  greatest  service  are  just  ahead. 
The  whole  world  trusts  him  and  looks  to  him  in  the 
final  arrangements  of  world  affairs  at  the  end  of  the 
war.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  will  measure  up  to 
this  greatest  opportunity  ever  accorded  a  human 
being  to  dispose  of  the  destinies  of  all  mankind.  Un- 
doubtedly he  will  be  the  head  of  the  League  of 
Nations  which  in  the  future  is  to  take  the  place  of  all 
wars  and  insure  justice  to  all  peoples. 

Woodrow  Wilson  is  a  product  of  America.  No 
other  country  could  have  produced  him.  He  is  a 
Democrat — a  product  of  democracy.  Also  he  is 
America's  first  great  contribution  to  the  list  of  truly 
world  statesmen.  America's  democracy  has  been 
called  to  the  front  in  the  breakdown  of  all  the  old 
systems  together  in  the  cataclysm  of  world  war,  and 
she  offers  a  leader  who  embodies  in  his  life  the  prin- 
ciple for  which  the  world  travails. 

Lincoln  was  raised  up  by  Almighty  God  to  bring 
America  through  her  great  trial  of  internal  strife  to 
a  new  birth  of  freedom;  just  as  truly  He  raised  up 
Wilson  to  pilot  America  through  her  struggle  with 
a  foreign  foe,  and  made  him  the  leading  exponent  of 
the  principles  at  stake.  Such  men  appear  at  great 
stress  periods.    Let  us  be  thankful. 

A  Kentucky  poet,  Cale  Young  Rice,  has  paid  a 
touching  tribute  to  Mr.  Wilson,  and  there  seems  no 
more  appropriate  way  to  close  this  sketch  and  esti- 
mate of  our  beloved  leader  than  to  quote  his  little 
poem : 


152  History  of  Corporal  Fess  Whitaker 

To  President  Wilson. 

"Woodrow  Wilson,  master  of  patience, 
Master  of  silence,  master  of  speech; 
Master  amid  the  world's  war-frenzy 
Of  clear  wisdom's  inward  reach; 
Watcher  of  raging  civilizations 
Till  the  one  righteous  hour  arrives 
When  you  can  speak  for  all  nations. 

Great  is  your  guidance  now  that  shrives 
Both  friend  and  foe  from  base  soul-gyves. 

"Woodrow  Wilson,  lofty  listener 
At  the  great  heart  of  Destiny; 
Hearing  above  all  feverous  hatred 
Justice  breathing  what  should  be; 
Still  for  a  peace  that  shall  not  perish 
Stand — for  if  ever  a  Providence 
Comes  to  the  Universe  to  nourish 

Men  in  their  woe,  and  lead  them  hence, 
Near  us  now  is  its  Immanence !" 


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